


When the Game Changed

by x_unbound_x



Series: When We Stood Together [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Achievement Hunters, Eventual Smut, Fake AH Crew, GTA V AU, Guns, Language, Robbery, Romance, Rooster Teeth - Freeform, Violence, criminals, fake ah crew gta v au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:06:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 122,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4772855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/x_unbound_x/pseuds/x_unbound_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a past that was full of criminal activity and a father who was a modern day outlaw, Dakota Dayley was destined to be a great criminal. It was the only life she had ever known and she kept the tradition strong even after her father's death. Yet, every great criminal has a slip up, and her slip up just so happened to be when she robbed the same venue as the Fake AH Crew on the same exact night. When plans go completely different after they track her down, her friendships with the crew ensue, and a fire ignites as she gets to know Ryan Haywood at a closer range. For them, the game had always been the same. But once they met, it was when the game changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I've wanted to get into this story for a while, and it's actually the first one that I've ever planned out carefully! I have a whole trilogy lined up for y'all, so I hope it satisfies! Feedback is greatly appreciated, don't be afraid to share it! Let me know if this story is as worth it as I want it to be. Thanks and enjoy!

Preparation was never Dakota's strong suit. Ever since she was a little girl, no matter if it was her prepping a cake for baking or packing a suitcase to once again change towns and names to escape the vices of her dad, she had never liked it nor been good at it.

It wasn't like it was ever hard, but preparation was always that thing where a person would have to admit to themselves that they were setting themselves up to either fail or to achieve, and it never sat right inside of her mind. She hated the idea of never being able to know what lied ahead of her in life because she liked to be sure of herself and her actions in a sense, but life was a cruel mistress and didn't allow a person to know that information.

From the very first day that Dakota ever prepped for anything, she was very noncompliant to the idea. Maybe it was the way her mother had stormed into her small, shoddy bedroom, cigarette in hand, sporting her signature tall up-do hair and begged for her to begin packing her things because Dakota's father was on the way to _find them_ , but either way, she wasn't fond. Preparing for ten new lives was hard on a small child, hard enough to want to repress the memories for her entire life, so now when the little images of her tiny black suit case all busted up on the end of her bed with her things packed away tightly inside, she ultimately remembered just how hard it was.

Those were difficult times, and it surely pushed back her growth into an independent woman of her own accord, but it almost worked out. As an adult, she was just now beginning to learn that preparations were the only way to actually get through life, and although Dakota was reluctant to admit it, she was thankful for all of those years of running away from her father, Tobias Dayley, and the many times she spent preparing for those instances. Because if she hadn't of learned how to be ready for anything at an early age, then she definitely wouldn't have been able to pull off a robbery on her own. And that's exactly what she was preparing to do at this time.

It had been long coming. From the moment that she learned how to shoot a gun, Dakota was on the path to becoming a great criminal. She had no way to know it at that time, but the signs were all there. She was more like her father in every way than her mother besides their uncanny looks, and it was surely fate. She didn't know if she was completely grateful for that fact, but she was thankful.

Somewhat.

Maybe.

Dakota shook her head, trying to forget all of her suffocating thoughts that were rattling around inside of her brain, and she looked down to her phone to relocate the objective at hand. On her smartphone was a picture of a woman, her living arrangements, the members of her family, practically all of the necessities she needed to know about one Marine Smith.

It wasn't Marine per say that Dakota was actually interested in, but it was her schedule and her line of work. Without Marine, Dakota was nothing more to this job than a speck of trouble that could be swept away under the rug like an insect. And with Mrs. Smith there, her plans of heisting were simple and smooth as long as Dakota got what she needed.

Dak sighed tiredly, rubbing her eyes to try to rid them of the sleep that was threatening her entire body. She had been up since six in the morning until the current time of eleven at night, carefully trailing Marine as if she were a federal agent staking out a criminal. But that was very much not the case as Dakota wasn't exactly a saint. None the less, she felt that this would make an appropriate scene in an action flick.

Her bright blue eyes looked up the the apartment that her target was residing in- third floor, fifth window to the right- and she wondered if Marine was sleeping at this time. After all, Dakota had been sitting in her position for an hour to see if the woman would leave her apartment, but the light went off not too long before she began to reminisce. It probably signaled that now was her chance to steal away and get what she needed, then quickly get out to not cause a lot of attention. Granted, no one would really notice anyways due to the fact that the apartments were just ordinary, no security system, and no camera surveillance jutting out at any corner of the building, but it was just a precaution.

Dakota stowed her phone into her pocket, stepping out of the car, and she pulled the hood of her jacket up and over her head. Looking both ways into the dim lighting of the streets from the overhead street lamps, she crossed to the adjacent sidewalk quickly, stopping at the curb to make sure that she knew where she was headed, then continued on.

The city was not bustling on this side of town for some reason, and it felt strange to her. She was used to the feeling of pushing through heavy crowds to escape the cops, or making awkward eye contact with civilians that would be wandering around aimlessly at the late hours of the night while on a setup for her recent string of burglaries, and it was kind of unsettling to know that she wasn't under any kind of pressure. Of course it was a relief, but Dakota was the kind who worked very well under the spotlight. It was a stupid little quirk of hers to think that, but it was true to every aspect. She was a star under pressure.

Getting into the elevator, she pushed the plastic covered button with a badly painted 3 underneath the cover, and once the elevator stopped, she was off to apartment number 305.

Dakota found the door quickly, and she checked her surroundings to double check that no one was about or there were no cameras, although she was already sure that her earlier scope out of the place proved that nothing was going to be a problem for her. With a swift lock picking mechanic she had learned when she was twelve years old, the door was no match to her superior abilities, and she was inside of Marine's unsurprisingly tidy apartment.

Nothing stirred around the room except for the occassional hum of the electric devices that were still working in the kitchen, and besides a few glows of red and blue, the room was pitch black. Her theory about Marine being asleep was rock solid at this point, and Dak pushed her way into the layout of the apartment, seeking the bedroom that her target was peacefully resting inside of. She'd be out of here in no time at this rate and could reside in slumber herself soon.

Sure enough, to her right was a bedroom, and the door was wide open, revealing a figure tucked away tightly underneath cotton sheets and sleeping harder than a baby. Dakota invited herself in, making sure to not step on any objects on the floor that could somehow jeopardize herself and her mission as it could be a possibility. Marine's body hugged the bottom of her sheets tightly, and Dakota was immediately tired just looking at the other woman comfortable in her own bed. Not wanting to drag this out any longer, Dakota pulled out her bit that was lazily resting in the back of her waistband, and she cocked it, putting the end of the barrel into Marine's temple.

"Oh, Mrs. Smith!" Dakota smiled in a sing song voice, ripping off the woman's sheets. Marine shot up in an instant, and her dark brown eyes searched Dakota's body until both women made eye contact. She tried to scream, but Dakota shook her head and pressed the gun even further into her opposer's skull, silencing the woman for the moment being.

Dakota looked malevolent in the darkness of the bedroom, the light from the moon outside of the small window dousing her face in white rays. Her lips were pulled into a small smirk, and her wild, dark brown hair tried to escape the hoodie like tiny serpents slithering out of a cavern. She was fatally beautiful and weirdly friendly to Marine then.

"I'm sorry it had to go down like this," Dakota sighed. "But, the good news is, this can be a good thing for us both. If you cooperate with me, then I'll spare your life. But if you don't and try to say anything at all about this encounter, then don't think I can't find you a second time just like I did this time. Understand?"

Marine was absolutely terrified to the core. She wanted to run away and scream and cry and call the cops, but she knew that she would never get out of this situation that way. This woman seemed pretty sincere in her words, and she didn't want anything to do with her, but she strangely trusted her.

Although it went against everything she believed in, Marine nodded.

"Okay! Good! Now, give me the access card that management gave you when you were hired at your office yesterday, and you and I will be even, okay?"

-

 _It was finally time_ , Dakota thought proudly, pulling on the last piece of her outfit to complete the look that Marine had specifically told her to wear for this occasion.

"You need to make sure that you only wear either pastels, or classic black," Marine stated as she tried not to shake underneath Dakota's gun that was pressed to her bare shoulder blade. She had opened up her closet and showed off the collection of colors that she had inside for her newly found job, and Dakota admired the colors even though she hated wearing pastels because she thought it made her look like a single middle aged woman, and she was clearly not that, besides the single part.

Dakota basically got a whole rundown of the way a business woman should dress on the job, and she felt like she was being critiqued by one of those women on those fashion shows that she had to watch when she got home late at night and that was all that was on the TV. She almost abhorred Marine for being so critical about it all, but then again, she was holding a gun to the woman and threatening her life if she didn't do a good job at giving Dakota the information that she needed.

And Marine did just that. She obliged to Dakota's wishes and applied everything she knew that she had gathered from hours of preparation to receive her job, and Dakota swore just from three minutes with the Smith woman that she could try out for the job herself.

But now, here she was, dressed in an all black women's suit that had been recommended to her at Ponsonby's by the sales person, the access card strapped onto her breastpocket with a clasp, and her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She was itching underneath the expensive fabric and couldn't wait for it to be taken off once she was inside of the building and her plan was to be set off.

All she had to do was get inside of the building first, and that was the easiest part with the access key. Since Marine was hired by an online applicant, no one knew her face just yet and wouldn't suspect a thing if Dakota were to storm in there herself. Next, she had to locate the very delicate files that she was after. Now, these weren't just any files, they were manifests that recorded every single transaction that was made in and out of most of the banks around town. Those files were very beloved in the criminal community, and Dakota had an inside source that she had been trustfully working with lately that told her each consecutive file would sell for about $2,500 each. Now, there were a lot of documents that were in possession because as it was, there were 13 banks that were established just in the Los Santos/Tongva Hills area alone, and the building she was hitting could have had more manifests that included the banks of Blaine County and the ones that also dotted the Senora Freeway.

According to her inside source, if she could get the job done, then she could sell these manifests to the highest bidder, which was so far the Triads that she had also done business with beforehand and made very decent money. With their hands on those documents, they had control over every incoming and outgoing transaction and were going to be able to rip off whoever they wanted. Everyone won and Dakota got over $32,000 for _pieces of paper_.

She believed that it was worth the trouble of stealing into a young woman's house and practically ripping off her identity for one night of mischevious trouble.

Dakota looked into the mirror once more to disapprove of the style she was currently sporting, then proceeded to grab the briefcase that she had chalked full of her original clothes and the items she would use to disable cameras around the level that she was going to lift the papers from. It was simple and cheap stuff, like black, opaque tarps to cover over the lenses, but that was the best she could so as a one woman team. She had no experiencing in hacking, so the tarps were her only choice.

The young Dayley woman made her way out of her humble abode, making a beeline towards her car, and she quickly threw the briefcase in while getting into the driver's side. Her hands started the ignition swiftly and she was pulling out from the curb and onto the street briskly. As she drove the small drive, she recited everything that she had planned up until this point for this job to herself.

"Okay, Dak," she cooed, turning down the radio to hear her own voice. "All you have to do is be professional. Walk past the doors- three sets of rotating doors with two guards standing out front, equipped with a pistol in their holsters and a rifle by their sides- then get past the security check where they ID your card," she stated softly, patting the access card that hovered over her heart with the hand that wasn't on the steering wheel.

"Next, find Cedric Walters who will debrief you and check you into your schedule. He should be on the sixth floor, which is right above the floor where the files are kept. After the debriefing, ask where the restroom is, which is also on every odd floor of the building, so you'll be forced to go down to the fifth floor. Due to the time of the day, no one should be working in those offices as they're used for day jobs, and the only personnel authorized to access the floor are the two night shift guards that patrol the fifth floor every forty minutes."

She turned onto the street to her left, coming up on the Davis Department of City Records, and she turned into the parking lot, parking in the spot marked 24B. She remembered the number and remained in the car to finish replaying her plan in her mind.

"There, you have about a 30 minute window after all of that to get changed going down the stairs that do not have any surveillance, get inside the floor, cover the three cameras angled on the elevator, the offices, and the overall view of the floor, then search for the files. Get them, change back into these dreadful clothes, and get out Scott free," Dakota finished, smiling to herself as she thought of how easy the objective actually was. When she was first researching about the building and the floors' layouts, she thought originally it was going to be a pretty hard plan to concoct, but it turned out smoother than she could have hoped for.

With a sigh of relief, Dakota grasped the handle of the briefcase and exited the car, putting the keys into her pockets after locking it. Her journey towards the building began, and she put on her best poker face to get into the character that Marine had told her to be. Calm, collected, and most of all, very blunt and respectful. According to Ms. Smith, in the line of business, you had to be all four to be successful. The tired overdramatic view of business people being rude and too stern was just that, overdramatic.

She reached the stairs and ascended up the concrete, keeping her balance in the high heels steady, and once she recognized the two men standing at the doors, her face grew into a rock with a small smile plastered in her eyes. The building was down to a skeleton crew at this time of the night, besides the security detail which was always granted at these types of places, so she didn't have to mumur greetings to anyone, not even the guards when her slim form passed into the rotating doors to the inside.

Her blue eyes blinked around the interior of the large building, noting that everything looked just as she had seen when researching the place. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and she was thankful for that. The security scan was nothing more than a man standing by one of those spinny metal things, Dakota never knew the name for them other than it reminded her of theme parks, and there was a slot to identify cards built into the bulk of metal. She strutted her way to it, smiling upon meeting eyes with the guard, and nodded once.

"Evening, miss," he replied respectfully. "I'm gonna need to scan that card there," he eyed the card on Dakota's suit jacket, and she once again smiled.

"Of course," she said, ripping it off and handing it to the officer.

He willingly took it, running in through his scanner, and returned it to her, to which she replaced it in its original place on her pocket.

"Everything checks out, have a wonderful evening, Ms. Smith."

"Thank you!" Dakota replied cheerfully, passing through the spinning metal thing as she was now referring to it, and she was on her way to the elevator, up, and on the sixth floor. Once there, the young woman searched around for Cedric Walters, trying to picture the image that she had seen of him on her computer screen. He was supposed to be six foot, with blonde hair and a douchebag goatee with the pencil thin sideburns that connected with his beard, and she knew that he wasn't going to be hard to miss.

Sure enough, Dakota could clearly make out a man that fit her description, and she strolled over to him. He immediately turned around, noticing the name on her card and started to fill her in on the job she was expected to do, what she was going to do, how she should handle certain events, etc. She felt like her ear was going to fall off from all of the talking, and she tried to stay awake listening to his monotonous voice yakking away into her eardrums.

Just as she began to focus on the wall above his head to make it look like she was still listening intently, it seemed that he was wrapping up, and now was her time to shine.

"Uh, Mr. Walters? Is there a way you could appoint me to a restroom around here?" Dakota asked as politely as possible. Cedric gave her a once over then sighed, clearly annoyed with the fact that she had only been here ten minutes and was asking for the restroom.

"Sure, sure. There are ones above and below this floor, you can either take the elevator or the stairs, whatever floats your boat."

He then walked off back towards his office, and Dakota took it as her chance to set her plan in motion. She gunned it towards the stairs, unlocking her briefcase in the process, and once she was fully inside with the door shut, she started to undress and pull out the clothes she had intended to wear at this point.

Dakota was now dressed in her appropriate attire of all black, a black beanie on top of her head as she let her hair down to also conceal her face, and gloves around her hands. She packed everything up into the briefcase and took out the tarps, ready for action. The woman carefully slipped into the fifth floor, and her eyes searched for the cameras. They were practically staring her in the face when she entered, so Dakota kept her head down and stayed close to the wall while going for the first camera. Luckily, she realized that they are all stacked together on top of one another, so she stuck to the wall and reached up over her, throwing one of the tarps over all three cameras. Satisfied with her work, she now started to search for the files.

Dakota set down the briefcase at the entrance of the office that she was at, going over to the filing cabinets and looking for anything that could set off in her brain that that's where the files would be. She assumed they were going to be in some well kept place that would be hard to get to, but as she fumbled through the filing cabinet, she was surprised to find three manilla folders with a the word "manifest" stamped on every one of them. She guffawed at how fucking easy that this was going. It was almost like a fairy tale!

She checked inside the folders, and sure enough, there were the shipping manifests with the names of every bank in Los Santos, Tongva Hills, Paletto Bay, and even in Sandy Shores. She had to hide the sheer excitement that was trying to spread onto her face as she read every single piece of paper. Her heart was racing as she scrolled through the names of the banks, and she was unbelievably ecstatic while doing so. For a tiny job, this was hitting the jackpot!

Just as she began to exit the terminal she was in, the alarm went off around the building, and the emergency lights of red began to strobe while the general overhead lights shut off, leaving her in the darkness. Dakota stopped dead in her tracks, now entirely spooked.

Did she set off the alarm?

What was going on?

Was she... Was she caught?

Before she could start to panick, the door that she had came in from busted open, and four men ran in, armed to the teeth in guns. She quickly froze, staring at each and every member of the quartet standing before her that were looking frantically around the room.

It was hard to tell underneath the lighting, but she tried to observe them. One of them was kind of short, his hair curly and his face stern as he looked around the building. He was dressed very similarly to the way Dakota was, down to the black beanie resting on his head. He moved in to the room first, signaling for the others to follow as it seemed to him that all was well for the time being. The next one to walk in was a taller man, his beard large, and he kind of reminded Dakota of Santa Claus. He looked too harmless to be in here, armed with a carbine rifle and strapped up in a bullet proof vest, and she thought that his look totally contradicted his profession.

Following him were two more guys, one shorter than the other with jet black hair, thick glasses, and a beard that looked like he was trying to grow out. He was grasping the end of a pistol, setting his sights around the floor level to be content that the one in the front hadn't missed anything. Lastly was a tall man, clad in a leather black jacket with blue sleeves and white stripes, and the odd thing about him was the mask he was wearing on his head.

It was menacing and impenetrable to onlookers, as the place where the skin around his eyes should have been, there was instead black face paint to make sure that only his eyes were visible behind the mask. He looked pretty concentrated, but his broad shoulders were not tensed as usually suspected when someone is really focused. Dakota noticed that he stood tall to the other three, even Santa Claus by a little bit, and he pushed past them into the room.

"Okay, everyone," the first one with the curly hair spoke, and Dakota could tell the distinctness of his voice as it was not like one she had ever heard. "The alarm has obviously been tripped, so we only have about ten minutes to find these fucking documents and get the hell back to the others. Let's get to it, people!"

The others agreed and started to dig around the offices, causing Dakota to fall to her knees and scramble underneath a desk, clutching the files to her chest tightly. They came here to find the files too?! On the exact same night as her at the exact same time?! How the hell did she miss this?! There was no way that she could have missed other people staking this place out for the past few weeks just as she had! It was impossible!

Unless the Triads set her up, or they thought she wouldn't be able to go through with the plan and they hired others? She racked her brain to try and find any sign for any answer at all as the commotion behind her came closer and closer.

"Goddammit, this'll be impossible! This floor is fucking huge and this is just the first set of offices around here!" She heard the same voice yell and a crash of something came tumbling down.

"M, chill out! Let's just split up and take different sets and look that way, okay?" A deep voice replied to the first one, and Dakota guessed that Santa made that voice come to life.

There were footsteps thudding around her as the men made plans to try to split up to different parts of the floor. Three pairs of legs ran past her and she pulled herself even further under the desk she was at, trying to conceal herself from them. Maybe if she just made a run for it, she could make it! But only once she knew that all four of them were past the door was the only way she could try to even pull that off, and she knew that as of now, someone was still with her.

Dakota tried her hardest to stay calm while the sirens still rang, the red glow of the emergency lights parading around the dark room and landing onto her occasionally. She sat and listened to the pair of boots that were still in the same vicinity with her and realized that they were indeed moving closer to her than she had originally thought.

The man was right by Dakota now, moving into the office that she was in and coming upon the same exact filing cabinet she had sorted through. Thankfully, she had closed it when she was finished with it, and nothing looked suspicious. She could see the shoes of the man in front of her now, dangerously close, and she tried to pull her knees up to her chest also, but ended up banging against the desk above her accidentally. Her heart dropped into her stomach, and she hoped to God that he couldn't hear anything over the sound of the alarm.

But she was wrong. He did hear it as he searched through the cabinet, and he knew that it didn't come from his buddies as they were too far away to make a sound that close to him.

"What the hell?" He muttered under his breath, checking the space behind him to look for the perp that had made the noise. When he saw nothing there, he paused and his blue eyes flicked to the floor, seeing a briefcase flashing in the red lights that looked out of place.

Dakota thought that the voice sounded like Santa's, but it sounded distinctly different, and she knew for a fact that Santa was in the other room as he wasn't wearing the type of boots that this person in front of her was. Before she knew it, the skull mask came face to face with her, startling her, and she immediately reached for the gun that she had equipped on her belt, aiming it directly in between his eyes. The man was just as startled as her, she could see it in his twinkling blue orbs, so she tried to use it to her advantage.

"Back the fuck up before this trigger gets pulled," she snarled, trying her best to be intimidating. The mask shook yes, and the man backed up slowly and carefully, letting Dakota out. She quickly got up, scrambling to her feet and clutching the manifests in one hand, the gun pointed at the mysterious stranger in the other. She knelt cautiously, snatching the briefcase and throwing the papers in there before locking it tight, training herself to her feet and in the guy yet again.

She was still nervous at this point. This wasn't a part of her plan and she didn't know what she was supposed to do for a smooth escape, but all she could do was keep her gun aimed at her opposer and try to back out of the office with ease.

The tall man was observing this woman. She was clad in all black, and her hair was wildly strewn around everywhere, almost as black as her clothes. He noticed that her eyes were sparkling and glowing underneath the harsh lighting, and they looked bluish as far as he could make out. Her body fit tightly into the clothes, and she was almost perfect with all the right curves. He could say she was thick, but her slim torso said otherwise. Even as she pointed the gun at his face, the man was intrigued just staring at the beautiful woman. She couldn't have been much younger than him, but she was exuberantly youthful.

Dakota cocked her head to the side as they watched one another, also intruiged just by looking into his eyes. Yet again, those were all she could see in her position.

"R2, have you found anything? We haven't found shit!" One of those voices called out, and Dakota turned her attention towards the three figures running back towards the two of them. She stayed steady with her gun, but locked onto the other three this time.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The curly haired one yelled, his eyes wide while facing the barrel of Dakota's gun. "What the fuck?! R2, what is this?!"

"This is me pointing a gun at you jackasses, can't you tell?" Dakota growled, backing up another step to the exit.

"Who is this?!" The one with the glasses called out.

"My new friend," the masked man replied sarcastically with his deep voice.

Dakota trained the gun back onto him for a moment to yell, "Shut up!" Then fixated her sights on the others. If what they had said earlier was true about only having ten minutes until the heat arrived, then they only had a few seconds before the whole LSPD was busting into the doors five stories below them and none of them had time for any of this. She had to get out, and quick.

The one with the long beard that she kept calling Santa stepped up to her with his hands out, while the two behind him gripped the guns they were holding earlier.

"Now everyone calm down! Miss, what are you doing here? Are you, are you an employee?"

Dakota laughed and shook her head. "Do you really believe that right now, Santa Claus? You must be as innocent as you look if you do."

"Did she just call you Santa Claus?"

"I... I think she did."

"Look here," the curly haired one stepped in beside his partner, glaring down the woman that was unknown to him and pointed a finger at her. "If you don't tell us what the fuck you're doing here in about two seconds, then you're gonna be in as much shit as us when the feds burst through those doors right behind you! So why don't you just cut to the fucking chase?!"

Dakota's hand tightened on the trigger, and she glanced over to the man with the mask for a second, before returning her eyes to "M."

"Yeah, that sounds fun and all, but there's no way you're getting anything from me. Bummer, I really wanted to stay and have a chat with you all, really, but that's just not the kind of person I am."

M tried to retaliate, but finally the masked man moved in front of him and grabbed his shoulders, trying to push him back.

"Knock it off! Look, let's just call back to base."

"No, fuck that, R2!" M stated, pushing away from him, staring up at the man before his eyes unleashed onto the woman yet again. "Why is she here?! We need to know that and she's gonna tell us-"

"M, stop!" The one they called R2 boomed. "Just stop man! She had the files in her briefcase! I saw them, okay?! We need to call to the others and see what we're supposed to do about this and not screw anything up."

"What?!"

"Why does she have them?! You didn't take them from her?!"

"She had me at point blank!"

"How are we supposed to do this now?! G1 is gonna be pissed if we don't take them from her!"

All of a sudden, the four of them started to argue as they huddled together, deciding whether or not to call it in to see if the plan was compromised, and they all had their backs (mistakingly) turned towards Dakota while they hashed out what to do next. There was no way that she would escape clean if she stayed any longer, so with a heave of the briefcase over her shoulder, Dakota turned on her heels and sprinted quickly out of the room to the stairs, locking the door before she was spotted by the distracted quartet.

She moved down the stairs with haste, reaching the bottom floor, and once she did, she ran the opposite way of the entrance towards the emergency exit, seeing as everyone was evacuated outside and no one was (thankfully) inside yet, not even the cops.

Once outside, Dakota ran towards her car and took off into the night, the manifests stowed away safely in her handy briefcase.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I hope that its enjoyable so far! I'd love to hear back from all of you, and enjoy this next chapter lovelies!

"Okay, guys, we ready for this?" Geoff asked pleasantly, clasping his hands together and looking around at the five guys stationed out before him.

The only response that he received were loud whoops and hollers, the guys all turning to their friends and giving them high fives and knuckle bumps, a few swinging their arms around one another and bringing them in close. Geoff wouldn't have imagined their reactions any other way, this was the way it had always been. Every single score they had ever pulled had came down to that moment: the moment right before they were all going to split up and risk their lives for one another.

And it had been that way ever since their very first score. Geoff remembered it like it was yesterday, it surely felt like it was, and he wanted to laugh his award winning laugh at the thought of Project Numero Uno.

That was the title of their very first heist that they pulled off as a team. It had been a few months into the making of the Fake AH Crew as they called themselves, and they all decided it was time to put their years of training and skills to work once and for all to see if their crew was actually worth something. So each individual spent weeks on end contributing to the charity of their own, putting in ideas and scoring setups and getting used to working with one another in a totally different aspect than just completing jobs for gangs and figureheads here and there like they had been doing.

Of course, it took some time to understand that they were all working as a team and not individually anymore, but in the end it paid off, and Project Numero Uno was born. It was their first official heist, and it was the start of something new for their future. That project was the reason that they were where they were today, but the part that Geoff distinctly recalled the most was the moment that he had gathered everyone around him before they could all steal off to commence.

He had prepared in his mind a big speech to get them ready, and to thank them for everything that they had done because they had become his family in the time that the Fake AH Crew formed, but he himself realized at that time that he was trying to prepare himself for that moment too. He had grown so close to these people over the months, and he was fully aware that by sending everyone out there, they could be just as good as dead. He could have been just as good as dead too. But he knew that was the risk a person took when getting too familiarized with their co-workers in this sort of life, and he had to accept it and move on.

Besides, they were all too professional to get killed right off the bat. Nothing was going to take any of them down that quickly, so he manned up and did his speech and although he could see the tiny glistening of hesitation and doubt in all of their eyes, he whisked them away so they could get into position. And after that, it all seemed to work out, and they no longer doubted themselves or their teammates.

There had been slip ups, that was granted for any criminal, but for the most part, their up and coming crew was a force to be reckoned with. They targeted place after place and succeeded so many times that it came natural to them, and they were beyond their prime at this point, only skyrocketing upwards from there. The crew was so swift, so easy with each other, and they worked well together, almost like every single one of them were soulmates and were meant to find one another. Geoff believed that with every fiber of his being, and as he stood there now, admiring the people in front of him as they cheered and laughed with the person next to them, he knew that their destiny was this crew.

The job that they were going to take on was fairly pretty easy. He had been contacted by the Triads, an ally gang that had partnered with his crew before, and they offered him to get to the Davis Department of City Records to snatch up more than a dozen shipping manifests, and they would pay in generous numbers for each document as they were apparently very valuable assets to obtain. The man that had contacted him, Toshi Hamada, distressed that these manifests were the key to professionally overtaking all of the banks for three counties in San Andreas, and perhaps they could even work together to rip off said banks and split the sum down the middle. Geoff was completely interested at this point and agreed without any type of hesitation. He had been looking for a big break for a while, and the deal was offering it to him directly.

Yet, he was warned that someone else was on the case also, a one person kind of mercenary for hire, and that it was a race to beat the clock. Geoff had assured Toshi that they would get the job done first.

"Well, if we're all done jerking off each other, let's go get this done!" Geoff yelled into the night air of Los Santos, clad in the cliché black look that everyone had agreed on for this job, his gun in his hand. "Remember people, initials from here on out."

As the six men made their ways to their vehicles, Ray piped up in dissatisfaction, glaring at the pistol he was throwing a clip in to. "I still don't get why we couldn't have gone with my idea and used middle names. Initials are so mainstream, like there's no originality, man! Plus, four of us have the same initials and that just defeats the purpose."

Gavin chuckled beside his friend, looking at him through a partway glance. "Cheer up, lad!" His bubbly British accent replied, giving Ray a grin. "We can use them on some other one. You know Geoff just wants to be all professional about this one because he has the Triads riding his bollocks."

Ray nodded slightly, but didn't say anything, he just got into the vehicle with the other three that he was assigned to group up with this job: Jack, Michael, and Ryan. Gavin quickly scurried off to the two door car that Geoff was awaiting him in, and once he dove into the passenger seat, the two cars peeled out into the night, heading towards their destination on the other side of town. The Davis building was more of in the outskirts of the inner city opposed to the thought that it would itself be in the inner city, and it changed their original plan of wanting to break in after hours and go nice and slow without drawing attention to themselves, but since the police station was also on the outskirts of the inner city and on the other side from the Davis building, everyone wanted to go in loud and stupid like they knew best since the police dispatch would take about twenty minutes. Even though their approach was idiotic, the getaway was always the part that was well organized.

Usually when they would hit a target, Jack would be the getaway option as he was the main pilot in everything they did. But for this job, Geoff wanted him on the ground team that got inside for his ingenious plan for their escape. They would bust in all loud, get everyone evacuated by tripping a security alarm so they could freely search the floor with the documents on them, and that would give ground team ten minutes to divide and conquer, retrieve the files, ditch their clothes into more business appropriate attire, and run out of the building, posing as trapped employees and point the cops in the wrong direction of the perps. But little would they know that before the four of them had exited the floor they were "trapped on," they would have thrown down sacks with their clothes, guns, and the manifests in the trash chute that was on the bottom floor to the position that Geoff and Gavin were at. Normally, the cops would have the building surrounded once they arrived, but the way that the plan went, the document snatching and clothes changing would happen in under fifteen minutes of the twenty, with five minutes for ground team to distract the cops, so that Geoff and Gavin could escape unscathed and wait for the others to meet up with them at the spot that they had all picked to regroup. Jack, Ray, Michael, and Ryan could slip away into the commotion outside the building, get with the two other members, and they would immediately turn the manifests in to the Triads and receive their pay.

The plan was perfect if their time was played right, but Geoff had no doubt that the crew was going to yet again prove themselves.

The little earpiece that the crew had in their ears piped up, an Geoff took it as a statement towards him upon hearing it.

"Hey, G, we're about two minutes out from the building, what's your angle?" he heard Jack's voice call into his ear, and before he could reply, Gavin beat him to it, pressing the little button on his earpiece to communicate with the other car.

"This is G, you'll have to ask the other G for that information. Over."

Geoff scoffed and gave Gavin a disgusted glare.

"Goddammit, Gavin, he was already asking me you stupid cockbite! Just keep your mouth shut when they say 'G,' okay?" he said in agitation, wondering just how stupid one person could be sometimes, but remembered that Gavin was probably the person that amazed him in that aspect everyday.

"You just broke your own rule! I thought we were supposed to go initials only!"

Geoff tried his hardest to bite back his fist from connecting with Gavin's face, but if he did that, then there was a good probability that he would crash the car and both of them would be dead before they even got to their destination and started the job. Instead, he sighed and ignored Gavin, trying to get back to Jack's question.

"Yeah, we're pretty close ourselves cause we took that left at the light instead of following you guys. From now on, call me G1, and the two R's can work out whatever they want about that situation. See you guys on the other side," Geoff's finger released the tiny button as he finished his sentence, and he pulled into a dark parking lot, cutting across it to reach the Davis building's backway alley that was less than a football field's length away. He realized just then how close they were at that point and wanted to radio back to Jack, but decided against it just in case the other car was too approaching the position that it was headed for, which was down the street from the Davis building.

Geoff maneuvered his way into the alley once they were close enough, and looking around, he turned off the car and the headlights, then proceeded to turn towards Gavin, the disgusted look yet again on his face. Gavin felt the stare, and he tried to avoid it by fidgeting around in the seat. But when Geoff's eyes didn't break away, he finally faced his friend to engage in whatever conversation was waiting for him.

"What?!" he cried out, throwing his hands up into the air. This caused Geoff to further scoff, and his face contorted even more upon Gavin's question.

"How much of an idiot are you?" Geoff shot back.

Gav tried not to chuckle at the situation although he was the person being accused of stupidity.

"I thought they were talking to me! It's not my fault that we have the same first initial!"

"You couldn't have at least waited to see if I was going to reply myself before sounding like 'a proper fool?!'" Geoff tried to imitate Gavin's accent on the last three words badly, making a mocking face to go along with it. The man in the passenger seat laughed wildly to himself as he couldn't contain it any longer, and the one in the driver's seat sat annoyed, shaking his head that was currently residing in his hands.

"You know, Gavin, sometimes I really can't deal with you," he stated while sighing.

"You just did it again!"

"What?! What the fuck did I do?!"

"You just broke your own rule again!"

"That's only for the intercoms and when we're in action, you idiot! Jesus Christ, do you not have common sense?! Know what? Don't talk to me until this is over," Geoff mumbled, wishing to God that he could leave Gavin here and go in with ground team, but he knew that Gavin would find a way to screw it all up if he was on his own.

Down the street a ways, the other team was pulling into the position that was given for their car, and inside, everyone was trying to gather up their weapons and throw their business attire into a burlap sack. Jack grabbed the monster mask that was resting at his feet, and he turned to the other three men that were readying themselves in the car.

"You guys ready to mask up?" he asked.

"Way ahead of you, J," Ryan replied with a small smirk plastered onto his rugged face, and his blue eyes were shining with delight as he pulled out his favorite thing in the world from his pocket: a grey skull mask. He then proceeded to pull out a jar of eye black, pulling down the passenger seat mirror and making big, dark circles around his eyes before finally rubbing it all in. To finish, his hands gripped the mask that reeked of rubber and felt just as such, then pulled it on to his head. The wondrous blue orbs found themselves in the mirror again, and he was immediately satisfied with his look.

He had always been ecstatic to have the mask. It was like his signature, or maybe even his alter ego, but whatever it was, it made him feel in control. Ryan was completely obsessed with it. From the moment that he bought it so long ago, he fell deeply in love with the way that it made him turn from one person to the next, and he felt so invincible when it was on his head.

For some reason, the mask just defined him. He didn't quite know how to explain it, but the two became one when he would put it on.

Michael and Ray too threw on their masks just as soon as Ryan had, and Jack was the last to go. Once the situation was settled, Jack turned off the ignition and exited the car, cueing the men to follow. They ended up on foot in no time, their weapons all glued to their hands, and the burlap sack on Ray's back. With that, everyone started their way down the street, being strictly professional from then on out.

The four jogged their way towards the building down the sidewalk, observing their surroundings every once in a while to make for sure that no one was around to get suspicious.

"Okay," Ray said, short of breath from the cardio they were performing, "there's two guards outside of the building on watch. We make sure that they get taken out, and the only other guard that'll be on the floor at the time is the one ID'ing people coming inside. I don't think he's packing any serious heat, it looked like it was a tazer when we did recon a while back, but just as a precaution, he probably needs to be eliminated. The only other patrols will be moving from the top floor to the bottom in the elevator, so Jack will cut the line before we move up the stairs to get the documents. Everyone got that so far?"

The others nodded and didn't speak, continuing their run. Quickly, they were all approaching the department, so they took that time to slow down and figure out what angle they were going to take on the two outside guards.

"If two of us advance on one, and the other two do the same to the second guy, then I think we'll be pretty clear with those two. They have to go, no doubt, but this way maybe one of us won't get shot when charging them," Michael suggested, looking around the group of the men that were huddled close to him behind a slight concrete wall that was barricading them from the building that they so desperately needed to get in to.

"Yeah, I think that's our best bet," Ryan agreed. "Okay, two on one it is. Time to shine, boys."

As he spoke, Michael, Jack, and Ray were all readying their guns, checking one last time to make for sure that everything was fully functional and in good condition. With a slight move of Ray's hand after he peeked over the wall, the four of them ran out from their cover, Ryan and Michael taking on the guard from the left and Jack and Ray taking on the one from the right. They began to scream at them, ordering for them to put their weapons down and get on their knees with their hands behind their heads, and as according to plan, the two guards couldn't take on the mysterious men that were running at them armed to the teeth in weapons of all sorts, and they obeyed with ease.

As if it were nothing, Ryan immediately loaded a bullet into his guy's brain while Ray did the same to the other man. Unfazed by the deaths they had just caused, the two moved in behind Jack and Michael as they stormed into the building, all in a perfect square, and their guns were raised to the security officer that was unfortunately only carrying a tazer to protect himself and the others inside as Ray had suggested.

"Get the fuck on the ground!" Michael yelled at the top of his lungs, terrified screams of women bursting into the air behind the security scanning area as they noticed the sudden struggle at the entrance and bolted away. Ray hopped over the turnstiles to get inside, and Jack followed him to go find the elevator's power generator to pull the plug as the last two men stayed behind, taunting the officer that was standing at the turnstiles.

The lobby of the department was turning into complete chaos with the civilians running around and tripping over themselves. They were all trying to find exits and ways to escape the current scene that was unfolding around them, but little did they know in their panicked state that civilian deaths were off limits to the crew as long as it wasn't necessary. The best thing for them would have just been to stay put and not do anything until they were evacuated by a tripped alarm, but of course, they acted as worthless as they really were at the time.

Michael and Ryan kept their sights trained on the security guard closely as Ray ran behind the guard, searching for the alarm button underneath the metal desk the guy was stationed at. His fingers fought to find it as he slid them around the bottom of the desk, and his searching paid off when his hands hit a slight bump in the metal. Ray briskly jammed the button, and the lights above them shut off instantly, being replaced with flashing red ones and a God awful noise. With the room clearing out quickly and the fact that the only three floors operating at this time of night were going to evacuate themselves, the plan seemed to be going smoothly.

Ryan again shot out the guard's brain matter onto the wall behind him, and it was smothered in bits of pulpy red liquid. He didn't even take a second glance before hopping over the turnstiles, Michael coming up behind him, and they joined Ray by the closest wall.

"Protocol here shows that when that button is hit, the victims on the upper floors have to go down the emergency stairwell because the normal stairwell locks automatically due to some crappy new system that LS is trying out," Ray stated, his thumb curving towards the stairwell he was referring to that was located close to the security scanning.

"What kind of fucking new system is that, 'get everyone killed?!' It doesn't even make sense!" Ryan objected, getting absurdly dumbfounded by the sheer stupidity of the city he lived in.

"Whatever it is, it makes it easier for us right now. That means all we have to do is shoot the lock mechanism on the doors to get where we need to go," Ray stated, remembering everything that his brain had stowed away after doing weeks and weeks of recon and research on this place. He had worked alongside Geoff and Jack for weeks just researching the layout of the place, and spent even more time trying to get surveillance. He spent countless hours staking the building out, even sometimes on days that he wasn't assigned for setup, and it all seemed to finally be paying off as his knowledge began to flow from his mouth.

Michael checked the time by glancing at a conveniently placed clock on the white wall above him, and he realized their progress was well lived as it had only been about seven minutes since the chaos ensued. He could have swore that it had been longer due to the thought that they had just killed three people and busted in within that time, but apparently they were right on track. It also helped that the alarm had been triggered just a minute beforehand, so that was giving them a whole new window of time since police response would be twenty minutes to the alarm.

He also didn't get why the police response was going to be only twenty minutes and not less, but the more he thought about it, it did make sense because the station was on the other side of town, and they were robbing a place that held nothing but city records.

All of a sudden, Jack reappeared from out of nowhere, joining his friends that were waiting for his arrival. With a nod towards one another, they didn't waste a minute in heading to the stairwell, pulling off their masks, besides Ryan of course.

Before they got to the door, Ray stopped everyone and glanced behind his shoulder to Ryan, saying, "And by the way, I'm R1, so suck it."

-

"So you're telling me that some random chick showed up out of nowhere while you guys were in there, held the four of you at gun point with a pistol, and then just disappeared like a goddamn ghost into the night?!" Geoff shrieked, his soprano voice breaking on the word "night" as his arms flailed around his body. The anger inside of him was pouring out from all of his body, and he swore he was so angry that he was literally vibrating with rage.

He was absolutely appalled by the fact that four of his men had screwed up a plan that was running so smoothly, and that they let one little girl steal away into the night with all of the files that they had spent a month on planning to steal! They managed to singlehandedly sabotage their own plans, and now with the files gone, the Triads were going to have to call off the deal that enabled the Fake AH Crew to work with them to overtake all of the banks that were written on those manifests. Geoff was steaming mad, and he was about to boil everyone else.

They had only been at HQ for about a few minutes after somehow escaping the Davis building, and here they were with Geoff laying into them.

The four men that were on ground team looked away from Geoff as he started leaning into them, but Michael was the only one who stepped up, his face red with embarrassment and anger at the same time. He couldn't believe it himself that the strange woman had gotten away when all they had to do was _shoot her and take the documents back_ , but for some reason, Ryan had for once gone soft and not criminally insane and insisted that they radio in to Geoff to see what they were supposed to do.

Michael didn't understand why this one time Ryan actually remained sane and didn't blow the girl's brains out because he was the craziest one out of them all when it came to killing. Ryan was despicable when it came to that aspect, even downright diabolical, so for him to suggest not murdering anyone in cold blood was out of his entire element, and it pissed Michael off. It was his fault that they were getting chewed out.

"Spare us the lecture! I told you that I was trying to handle it and this fucktard over here screwed it all up by trying to protect the stupid bitch!" Michael retorted, stepping out of the line he had formed with the other men on his team, and he threw his arm back towards Ryan.

"We were in a bad situation and I wasn't going to just kill her when we didn't even know who she was!" Ryan chucked at Michael, to which the curly haired man scoffed and turned on his heels.

"Oh, yeah," he stated sardonically, "and look where that got us, genius! She got away cause you wanted to play the good guy for one time in your whole existence, and Geoff is getting on our ass, just like we knew he would if we didn't get the files either way, but this was the worst possible outcome we could have even managed!"

"Boys," Gavin tried to interject by stepping between them and putting a hand on Michael's shoulder, but Michael shrugged it off aggressively, and moved even closer to Ryan.

His eyes were seething and Ryan matched it, standing up tall as he too was starting to get agitated, but because he was getting blamed. All he did was try to control the matter without having to void someone of their life, and just because he didn't act like the "normal" psychopath that he was, they were trying to make him out to be the reason that she got away.

He had saw the fear in her eyes when he found her underneath that desk, and although she quickly pulled the situation around by pointing a gun in his face and playing off her nervousness damn well, he knew that she had not expected them, and she didn't want to die. For some reason, he recognized it, and he related to her. Maybe he did go soft for her big, blue eyes for a second when he stared deep into them for all of those moments, but it was no reason to try to twist the blame onto him.

"If we would have just shot her or if Ryan here would have let me try to get some information out of her like I wanted, maybe we wouldn't be so fucked at this point! We didn't even see where she went or else we could have gone after her by now!"

"Hey," Ryan said, directing a finger at the person dangerously close to him, "I was trying to do what's right instead of just ruthlessly brutalizing a living being! What if she had been a mob boss's daughter, or was part of the Triads and moving onto the target herself?! Didn't you say that the Triads warned you that someone else was trying to get the files?!" he asked, facing Geoff now, whose face was still glowing and teeming with rage as he listened impatiently to the others babble among one another.

"Okay, yeah, but that doesn't mean anything! Toshi said that it was a race against the clock, and he didn't specify who the person was supposed to be!" Geoff replied. "There's no way that that girl was worth any importance! You guys have royally fucked us at this point and I can't believe that you screwed up this opportunity for us!"

He was practically maroon from the anger that was coursing throughout his entire body and bubbling over underneath his skin, and he had to find a way to try and calm down.

No matter how bad he wanted to put the blame on ground team, he knew that he was to blame too. Apparently his hours of recon were a waste of time, because he didn't even notice that someone else was casing the joint. He thought that he had it all covered, especially with Ray and Jack helping him when he wasn't the one that spent time carefully inspecting everything about the building.

Wouldn't he have saw someone else if both of them were trying to hit the same place? There was no way that she just ducked under the radar from his heightened and alert senses. She couldn't have been good enough to just weasel away from them like that!

Geoff was dumbfounded at himself and everyone else. He didn't understand how a good thing could have gone so wrong. His mind was jumbled with all kinds of questions and he was trying so hard to rack around it and dig for any sign that he could to indicate that maybe he saw the woman at some point on his stakeouts, but nothing popped up, and he was utterly annoyed.

He sighed to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger and shutting his eyes tightly, then looked back up at everyone else as they tried to avoid the gazes of one another after yelling.

"Okay, look," Geoff started. "Did anyone at least get a good look at her before she took off?"

Ray shrugged. "I dunno. It was dark and the emergency lights were going haywire, man."

Geoff looked between the other three men that were with Ray at the time, and before he started to yell again when no one spoke up, Ryan got out from behind Michael and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I did."

In fact, when he admitted that, he couldn't help but not remember the woman's face. She was distinctly beautiful to him, with her soft skin glowing in the harsh lighting that they were surrounded by, her high cheekbones that lifted her face, the plump, pale lips that stayed in a straight line as she kept him in her sights at the end of the gun. Her hair was dark brown and long, falling around her shoulders wildly and somehow perfect waves wrapping her up, and even in the darkness, he could tell that by the way her roots were slightly a different color that she had dyed her hair black a few times.

Her body was slim and she was rightfully a full woman as he had noted in his head earlier in the night, but the part that haunted him the most were her eerily piercing blue eyes that shot a laser beam through him every time she threw a glance his way.

Ryan stood there, remembering her completely, and he realized that he was captivated by her. He wouldn't admit it aloud, but maybe that was why he was so distracted and became soft when Michael had clearly wanted to kill her or do something inhumane to gather the files from her. But... that was absurd, right?

Geoff finally felt a little relieved upon hearing this. "At least we have a description then..."

"Can I say something freely?" Ray asked towards no one in particular, threading his hands together and rubbing his thumbs against each other.

"No, but you're gonna say it anyway, so just get on with it."

Ray cleared his throat. "I just wanna confess... I can't believe a girl just basically handed our asses to us. She must have bigger balls than us!"

"Duly noted, now shut the fuck up and let's try to think up a plan to get her," Geoff replied, not in the mood for Ray's little enlightenment trip although it was entirely true. One woman took on a whole crew that was supposed to be unstoppable, and she won.

"What if," Gavin started, getting into the middle of the crew, "what if we asked the Triads what her name was? I mean, it's kind of obvious that she's the other one they sent to get those documents, so surely they have to know who she is?"

"That might be the smartest thing you've said in the past month, Gav," Michael retorted, giving Geoff a glance to see what his thoughts on Gavin's proposition was. His friend seemed to be pondering the thought, and the soft look in his eyes were giving away that the idea made sense.

"Yeah, that seems reasonable. Alright, I'm gonna try to get in contact with the Triads then," Geoff sighed, leaving the other five men to themselves as he wandered over to the other part of the conference room.

The group of friends looked around one another, and Ryan took the time to sit down in one of the chairs positioned in the middle of the room. He felt too tired to try and argue anymore with anyone else, and he just didn't want to cause other conflicts at this point because it would only make more tension then there already was.

Jack joined him in a different chair, sprawling out immediately, and he scratched his beard. "Do you think she's already sold the documents?" He asked, trying to start up a conversation.

"God, I hope not. Because then we'd just be wasting our time trying to go find her," Gavin scoffed, running a hand through his hair to keep it from falling back into his face again.

"Well, either way, I wanna meet the chick one on one this time," Michael cut in, "she really pissed me off."

"You're always pissed off."

"Okay, well she pissed me off more than normal and I want to rip her head off, is that better for you, Gavin?"

"A little."

"Okay, guys, keep it down," Jack pleaded, not wanting to hear more fighting than there already had been this night.

Ryan stayed silent as the others made small talk, waiting for Geoff to contact their employers for the job that they just utterly destroyed, and he kept his eyes on the ground. For some reason he had a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he couldn't stop thinking about that woman who evaded them.

He wanted to know more about her. He was completely intruiged in her for some reason, and he felt compelled to find her himself. He didn't know what was going on inside of his brain, but it was there, and it was bothering him.

"Hey, Ry, you okay man?" He heard a voice ask behind him. Ryan shook his head to rid his thoughts, and he looked behind him once he felt a hand on his back that belonged to Ray.

"Uh, yeah man, just uh-"

"You're thinking about that girl, aren't you?" Another voice interrupted, and he could tell that it was Michael on his other side by the distinct New Jersey accent.

"What?"

"Awh," Michael cooed with a dumb, looming smirk on his face, "what, do you like her or something? Is that why you didn't want me to kill her? Cause you got a little crush, Ryan? I think it's great man!"

"Yeah, you need a girlfriend! Its been a while since you had one," Ray joined in on the little joke, and Ryan grew frustrated.

"Stop! No! I'm just thinking that maybe... It is my fault she got away, and I'm sorry," he lied, trying to seem as truthful as possible. It looked like he had succeeded, and for that, he was thankful that he wasn't going to be tortured for the moment. But if Ryan knew anything about the men that surrounded him, it was that they never let anything go. Ever. This wouldn't be the last he heard of it.

"No, man, don't take what I said earlier to heart," Michael retaliated softly, feeling guilty about his previous comments against Ryan now. "I was just upset. We'll get her back though and everything will go back to normal."

"Yeah, I hope you're right."

Before they knew it, Geoff was returning, and he again didn't look too happy. In fact, he was once again seething, gripping his phone in his hand tight enough to break it. His knuckles were turning white from the rushing blood in his hand, and he felt his head pounding on the inside of his skull.

Everyone noticed his current state, and they braced themselves for another round of yelling.

"The deal's off," Geoff stated through gritted teeth, trying with all of his might to conceal his temper because his phone call with the Triads surprisingly didn't end all bad, but that still didn't mean he was happy.

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah! Said something about we drew too much attention and that the FIB were crawling all over them because they were the main suspects to steal those exact manifests already. So they're useless now and we don't get paid!"

"How are the documents 'not valuable' anymore?! That doesn't make sense!" Gavin asked, upset at the idea.

"I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me either, but he just told me that it wasn't worth the heat and they had to lay low, so even if we get the documents back, there's nothing for them!"

"So we're not gonna go get the girl then?" Ryan was the first to ask the question that they all were prepared to ask. Geoff, no matter how pissed off, grew a wicked mad grin, and waringly pointed a finger at the tall, blond haired man who threw out the question as if to prove a point.

"Wrong. We're gonna get her alright. I've got a name to put to her, and I want her ass found."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I really appreciate if you're still here! Thanks for the love <3 Once again, I hope that it's interesting enough to keep you all here. Love you and thank you!

"Wait, what?!" Dakota gritted through her teeth, trying her hardest not to yell back down the phone at one of the most notorious gang bosses of current affairs, although she was absolutely past the point of pissed off. It had been one whole day from the incident, and the first time that she could even reach the Triads, this was the news she got?

"I'm sorry, Ms. Dayley, but our little endeavor is off. Whatever had happened down at the Davis building built up too much, and I understand you have the manifests, but I cannot currently accept them," Toshi Hamada sighed on the other end of the line. He too was totally devastated by the fact that he wouldn't be able to possess those manifests, but the attention that her and the other team caused was critically fatal, and he just couldn't take them. The FIB were hard on his tail and his men, and he just couldn't take the risk of them owning those documents and somehow getting charged for the robbing of them and intentions to deceit banks all across the state. No matter how mad it made him, those were the facts, and he would have rather stuck to drug deals and rivalries with other gangs than attempting to rob banks.

it just wasn't his style. He was a white-collar crime boss that had an international record, and he couldn't associate himself with taking currency from the government because he believed it was a petty and conniving thing to do anyways. He'd much rather steal from the other kingpins.

"But we had a deal!" Dakota bit back.

"Yes, and it's a pity it had to end this way, but there's nothing you can do about it. I can't take the costs. Keep the manifests for yourself or sell them, it doesn't matter to me, but the Triads simply can't accept them. It's too risky for our corporation."

Dakota held back a sneer of dissatisfaction as she started to wonder why she even tried with these guys sometimes. There was no way past their thick skulls once they had an idea locked into it.

"What about the men that ruined my operation? I don't recall that as part of our deal," she retorted, trying to keep him on the line as long as possible so she could process what was going on. The first thing to do was ask about those men, the four guys that had busted inside while she was retrieving the files. She wanted to know what that was, first off. "I'm really hoping it wasn't a setup, Toshi."

The man paused on the other side of the phone, trying to recollect his thoughts. Yes, he had sent more people after the manifests, but that was because Dakota hadn't advanced on them as quick as he thought she would, and at the time, he was prepared to dismiss her as traitorous for leaving their little pact behind. He forgot then that she was a one person band and reacted as brazenly as he could of at the time.

"I apologize, Dakota. You simply didn't make a move quick enough. This deal had been on the table for two months, and I knew it'd take the other crew half that time, so I hired them also. Think of it as a friendly competition, but don't be foolish enough to think you were set up-"

"Are you kidding me?" Dakota questioned cynically, "So you're telling me that you just hired someone else to try to beat me out?! You couldn't have contacted me and asked my progress?!"

"I realize now it was very rash, Ms. Dayley-"

"Yeah, no shit, and look at the position it put us both in! I don't get paid and you don't get your manifests that you were so worried about you got two totally different crews to work on getting!"

Toshi was getting agitated at this point. He had contacted the other crew's leader and already got criticized, he wasn't going to let it happen again.

"Don't test me, Dayley," he growled, and if she was right in front of him in person, he would have been glaring daggers into her. "I told you that there's nothing you can do about it, so I would recommend that you don't make enemies with me. Now, if there's nothing else we can talk about, I'd like to cut ties as long as possible. We all need to lay low, and if I know anything about those others that were after the files, they're not going to be too happy you defeated them."

"Wait!" Dakota took a breath through her nose before she continued as she realized that she was playing a dangerous game by antagonizing the recent leader of the Triads. She knew that she shouldn't be mad at him, but rather the other idiots that sabotaged all of their deals singlehandedly. "If you don't mind me asking before we cut our ties altogether, is there anything you can tell me about those others? I just... If what you say is true, you're implying that they're gonna come after me. I want to know what I'm getting in to at least."

Toshi again paused. Dakota had always been loyal to any job he ever sent her on, he'd give her that. The least he could do was help her out a little. When he said that he was cutting ties with her as long as possible, it wasn't in vain, because it usually meant that their business was never going to conclude and they were going to never contact each other again. Even Dak knew that when she heard the words. It had happened times before with a few other gangs that had hired her for jobs, and at this point, she knew that it was just a part of the game that she lived.

It was only a precaution for the both of them, and they both understood that.

"I'm sure I can do that. I'd rather not stay on the phone too much longer, so let's meet at a discreet location at twelve tonight. I'm going to have to try to leave by making a decoy get away because we're being monitored heavily, but it won't be problem, I've had to do it countless other times. We'll have a thirty minute window to talk before the agents that are watching us know they've been tricked, so I'll try my best to give you as much information as you need."

"Thank you, Mr. Hamada," Dakota sighed relief into the phone.

"Of course, Ms. Dayley. You've been nothing but helpful with me, so I have to return the favor. Meet me at the docks. Lay low."

And with that, Toshi hung up. He devised that if he left in a black suburban with tinted windows and three others exactly like it tailing him that suddenly trailed off course, that it would lead anyone following them the wrong way. He had done it many times before and it had always worked well, so he decided to use the strategy again.

Dakota on the other hand was busy texting angrily on her phone keyboard, pressing send when she was done composing her message. She had to tell her inside intel that her plan had been compromised, and that meant the fifteen percent cut that they were going to get by setting up the deal between her and the Triads was off too.

The text that responded didn't take much time.

_Well, nothing we can do about it. Contact me when you need something important in the future, I'm not a social event._

Dakota rolled her eyes at the message, wondering why she didn't expect anything other than that kind of reply. He was never much of a character that was too interested in anything anyways, but he didn't have to be an ass.

The young woman closed her eyelids and rubbed her face, then looked over to her table that the manila folder was resting on.

"What a big waste of time," she mumbled, remembering briefly that it took her two months to prep for that whole job on it's own. "And now, a group of men are trying to find me although they ruined MY score, and I have no idea what I'm up against. Good job, Dak. Dad would be so proud of you. After everything he taught you, and you can't even do a simple recon job well enough to realize that other people are on the clock too! Really living up to his name, alright."

She lazily walked over to her couch and plopped down, setting an alarm on her phone for eleven at night, then got comfortable and tried to sleep off the disappointment that she was feeling pretty heavily.

-

Jack sometimes asked himself why he was friends with the people that he was, and as he watched said friends all yell and scream at each other while messing around with a club and a golf ball inside of a room that was completely covered in windows, he wondered it more than ever.

For some reason, Gavin had thought it'd be a good idea to run upstairs to his studio, get a random club with a golf ball and a few plastic cups to have "goals," and play around with everyone that wasn't working, which meant _all of them_ except Jack as he tried to search for the woman that had escaped their grasp a whole day ago.

It seemed that he was the only one doing any real work on trying to figure out who this Dakota Dayley character was, and even when he called others out on it, they would just reply with a shrug and an answer like, "Oh, well, I'm waiting on you to get your research done so I can get a lead on where to find her." It was the same thing with all of them, so he just stopped questioning them and lived with it.

Just as he was bringing up something that he thought could be a pretty good lead on her, he cringed when a loud, obnoxious, British voice cried out, along with hysterical laughter from everyone else that didn't stop for minutes on end. Sighing in annoyance, he swiveled around in his chair to look around the room. The room itself was his own "studio" as they all called it, but it was really an apartment in a building that their crew had bought so they could be all together when necessary. When Geoff hired contractors to modify the whole place, it turned into their HQ, with two apartments on every level, except for the two top floors and the bottom. Currently, all of his friends were in his apartment, messing around his living room that was surrounded by one way windows, a large beige red couch that he had kept when the apartment was built with a glass coffee table in the middle, and there was a huge TV mounted above a fireplace.

Now, the bottom floor was really a place where they could kind of lounge around like a lobby with furniture and a few old video games that were taken from the old arcade on the pier that was closing down. Geoff added a bar down there recently where anyone could be their own bartender or where they could go if no one felt like going out to drink. There were flat screens and game consoles and even a section that had a computer walled off to itself for internet access. There was all kinds of things down there, and Jack thought of it as a big man cave, because it was practically built as such. The others wanted to install a pool, but Geoff was a little reluctant on it because he knew that no one would take care of the damn thing.

The very top floor was the floor that they went to when a meeting was called as it held their conference room. There was also an interrogation room, a storage room, and a "setup" room. That was where they planned out their scores carefully and that's were jobs were assigned. Every individual person would be debriefed for a job when they were in that room, and when it came to setups, it was where they all were meticulously assigned their specific part in a score or where they all agreed on how they were going to approach a heist.

The floor below it was the sixth floor, or known as Geoff's floor, because he took it all for himself when the modifications to the building were completed. There were supposed to be two apartments on that floor, but Geoff instead installed a different room, which was still apartment size and didn't change the layout at all, but it was their weapon room. That's were they stored all of their heavy weapons and artillery and ammo. It really was a waste of an apartment because although they did have a lot of weapons, it wasn't enough to fill up a whole apartment, but Geoff found a loophole and kept a floor to himself, leaving Ryan on a floor of his own too since no one was paired up with him on that floor.

The others had to share, unfairly, might Jack put. He was on the fourth floor with Ray. Michael and Gavin were on the third floor, and then Ryan was underneath Geoff with the fifth floor. The third floor was just that of spare apartments for other people who helped them, really, which really meant it was those other people's places when they came. Never knew why it came out that way, skipping a floor, but they just did.

They didn't live there all the time. They split it kind of half and half. Everyone had their own place outside of here, they had to considering the fact that Geoff was married and most of them had pretty steady girlfriends, so instead they used this place as their place to work. When they completed a score, they went to their other places all across the city and laid low until it was time for work again.

Yet it didn't stop the women of their lives from living with them in the apartment complex sometimes too.

"Can all of you stop trying to take out my windows and come over here instead?" Jack asked, turning back to his computer on the kitchen island, pulling up a file that looked promising to him. Mostly, he just wanted them to stop almost wrecking his place, but he did have something they probably wanted to look at.

Immediately, there were five other men surrounding him, Geoff pushing up to the front of everyone while yelling at them to let him through. He finally shoved his way in the front with Jack and his computer, and everyone else just fell in place.

"Okay, so I've been going through the database pretty thoroughly, and it took a little digging, but this popped up," he stated, expanding the file so everyone could see it. A picture of a pretty young woman pulled up, with her date of birth, height, weight, eye color, and her name that clearly said "Dakota Dayley." Usually where a background would be, there wasn't one, and not even a criminal record was there, which struck strange to Jack.

He knew it wasn't impossible to get everything about a person deleted without actually deleting the person off of the face of the earth in the government's database because that's what he had did to everyone in the crew, but he didn't think that this woman had that kind of skill. Either she did and she was pretty good at it, or she had someone do it for her. Either way, it'd make her the real deal.

"There's nothing on here about her," Ray noted, squinting at the words on the bright, illuminating screen that was in front of him. Jack nodded, then scrolled down a little bit.

"I know. And that means she must have someone on the inside, or she did it herself."

"Smart girl," Geoff replied nonchalantly. "Ryan, is this the girl that you saw?"

Ryan took a closer look at the picture, and he was amazed that his assessment on her from the other night was correct. She looked exactly the same as he had remembered her.

"Yeah," he said, trying his hardest not to guffaw at how incredible it was that they had actually found her relatively quick. "That's her alright."

"Oh yeah, you would remember because you're madly in love with her!" Michael mocked, batting his eyelashes at Ryan while trying to stare at him lovingly.

"I'm not in love with her!" Ryan defended himself.

"Yeah, sure, big guy. Maybe if we could have killed her then I'd believe you."

"Stop!" Geoff interjected, already getting a headache from all of their bickering. He wasn't in the mood to take another round of them edging Ryan about his encounter with the woman, and he wanted to keep on task. His blue eyes loomed over the name and the picture again, and he suddenly got a light bulb in his head. "Does Dayley sound familiar to any of you guys?"

The six of them pondered it a moment, trying anything to see if Dayley indeed was familiar, and although it had a ring to it, none of them really could grasp the name until Jack lit up.

"Tobias Dayley! That modern day outlaw that died a few months back. The one who killed all of those cops on that really big heist up in the hills," he said, remembering suddenly all of the stories he heard about Tobias Dayley.

Tobias Dayley was one of the most notorious criminals in the country, and he definitely went down in history. The story that Jack had heard says there was a large, international bank that was kind of like the Union Depository on the way up the Great Ocean Highway towards Paletto Bay, and when it was in it's prime, there was a group of men that had attempted to rob it. There was only four people on the team, but they were a group of nationally wanted criminals, and Tobias Dayley was one of the men. He had grew up based around San Andreas, and it didn't take long for him to become one of the most wanted criminals on the United States's list.

Tobias and his group went into the bank, guns blazing, and they stole out with over millions of dollars in cash, with each man holding more than twenty million each. While they were on getaway, the feds had them trapped going across the bridge down back towards Los Santos, and killed the other three men that Tobias was with.

In a fleeing attempt, Tobias somehow managed to take out most of the cops while trailing off into the woods below with all of the money, and it was there that he took out twenty officers, three helicopters, and two police boats. By the time that NOOSE was called in for reinforcements, Tobias had disappeared, walking away with over eighty mil in his pocket.

He never resurfaced because some speculated he went out of the game for retirement, but it wasn't until about twelve years after that did his name pop up again. He started to go cross country with a teenager, and for years they went around the nation, robbing whatever they could and getting away successfully. He became one of the most known criminals in all of history for his journey, and when he finally did retire, he turned in to Liberty City and changed his last name to an old alias that he had.

It was there that years later he was found dead due to a heart attack, and he was finally revealed once and for all.

"The one that went around the country with that kid?"

"That's the one," Jack replied, leaning into the back of his chair to glance at everyone behind him. Everyone seemed to be in a trance after they heard Tobias's name.

"You don't think that they're related, do you?" Gavin asked, clearing the air as it was clearly what everyone wanted to ask.

"There's no way that they are!" Geoff dismissed, scrolling up and down the page on the screen to examine it further.

"I don't know, man. I haven't ever seen anyone with that same last name before, especially spelled like that. If they aren't related, then it's a pretty big coincidence that they have the same name and the same line of work," Ryan said. "Plus, I mean, she had no background. That's a pretty big clue in itself."

Michael nodded. "I agree with him. What if it is his kid and she does turn out to be Tobias's legendary badass spawn? I don't think I'd want to meet face to face with her then. That guy kicked ass, and if she has his genes, I'm out."

Ray chuckled next to his friend and joined the conversation. "But if they aren't related, then we let go the person who ruined our first big break in forever with a major gang in this city. So I mean, we'll never know unless we find her."

The men spoke amongst one another for a while until it turned out to be just stories about Tobias and his affairs when he was alive. They were all telling the stories that they had heard and how he was a legend to them, and how they all remembered growing up and hearing about what he did all over the news or from their relatives that would come to visit. Tobias was a pretty big thing to them, and just the thought that maybe they were chasing after his possible child blew their minds.

"Look," Geoff spoke up, trying to reel everyone back in to the objective. "I think Ray's right. There's no way we'll know unless we find her, so the search is still on. While you guys were busy retelling your childhood bedtime stories, I was looking at the things on here that could provide information on where she is, and I found three different addresses."

The guys all came back to reality, all of their eyes meeting with the white screen before them and read the addresses for themselves. Indeed there were three different ones that came up, all strewn along the city, and they all immediately wondered if that was a strategy just in case that something like someone trying to come after her ensued. More than likely that was the case, and they again thought that she was smart.

"I think that we should spend today assessing who's gonna go where, so meet me and Jack up in the setup room in thirty minutes. We're gonna look up these places, and we'll make our plan upstairs. Right, Jack?" Geoff asked, hitting his friend on the back.

Jack rolled his eyes, getting back onto his computer to start the search, and he mumbled to himself, "Yeah, fuck it, whatever. Not like I wasn't working already anyways. Jackass."

-

The late night air was unacceptably cold by the time Dakota had arrived down at the industrial docks in Los Santos, and she cursed herself for not bringing a jacket and deciding to wear a wife beater combined with some shorts that she had found in the hamper in her bathroom. She was too lazy to actually wash her clothes lately, so she had just took a whiff of them, and satisfied that they didn't smell like death, threw them on.

But now as she stood, shivering in the chilly breeze that whipped her hair around and created goose bumps on her bare arms and shoulders, she was really regretting the fact that she chose that attire.

The sky was about as black as imagined when standing out in the middle of it at twelve at night, and the little bit that she could see around here- which wasn't much but rickety old warehouses and dozens of ports that dropped off into the ocean- were due to the twinkling stars and the poorly lit street lamps. She sat on the hood of her car, a matte black Coquette Classic that she had kept from her father after his death a few months prior, and she observed the stars closely.

It had always been a habit of hers. She loved to sit outside and star gaze just as much as the next hopeless romantic, but to Dakota, star gazing had a deeper meaning.

Star gazing was what her and her father had done when they were on the run together so many years ago. It was one of their ways of bonding, and although she would have much preferred doing it with a boyfriend although she had never had one her teenage years, her father was the alternative.

They would lay back on the hood of that same car and gaze upwards at the universe, taking it all in and engulfing it while spending time just talking with one another. She still remembered a very distinct time that they had had, one of their first times ever working together cross country after the years that he had spent training her on everything he knew about being a good criminal.

"Dakota, I want you to remember something. This life that we're in, it's not good. Don't ever think it's okay, ever, because it isn't. In all of the time that I've been doing this, I've done my fair share of grieving for being this way, but honey, it's just that," he had said, leaning onto his elbows while stealing a glance at his daughter underneath the moonlight. She was staring up into the sky, listening to him, but not fully listening because she was too busy trying to figure out if she could find the Little Dipper. When she gave up, she finally replied to the man beside her.

"What do you mean, 'it's just that?'"

"Well," Tobias Dayley replied, propping himself up to rub his chin, thinking a way up to explain it to her. "I didn't exactly choose to be this way, Dak. It just happens. Either you're born into the game, or you're not, and we're the ones that are. God intended it to be that way, and although it means we aren't good people, it doesn't mean it's not God's plan for you."

"But you said that you're gonna go to Hell. Aren't you mad about His plan, dad?" the young girl had asked. She might have been following in her father's shoes, but she was too young to be more mature at the subject as she was only about fifteen. They hadn't been doing any jobs too risky because he knew that if they did, no matter how well skilled she was at this age, that she wouldn't be up for it. But he had plans for them in the future.

Tobias chuckled, ruffling Dakota's hair with one of his hands, and she shriveled under it in disagreement. "Nah, Dak, I'm not mad. We can't change who we are."

"But we can change what we do. That option has always been there. We just don't take the risk because we're afraid that we're not ready to live like everyone else. We're what they want to be, but they can't bring themselves to live with breaking the rules. We're their alter egos. And although it may not be our choice on who we are, it doesn't mean we can't change what we do."

"You're wise for your age, I'll give you that. You know what you're talking about for sure, but I just want to let you in on a little something, daughter o' mine," the man replied, admiring that she was indeed his offspring. "There's gonna be times in this life that you wish that you weren't who you are. I've had my doubts on why I was made this way. But just because something is wrong, doesn't mean it's not right, understand?"

"I... I think so. You're trying to tell me that if you believe in something and you think it's right when the rest of society doesn't, it doesn't mean that you're wrong. Right?"

"Yeah, I think you pretty much got it. And don't forget it, Dakota. You're the best thing that's happened to me in this world, and you need to know that you can't be ashamed of yourself and your actions. You've gotta own up to them, and you've gotta accept that you're responsible. You take that as you may, but I want you to keep that locked away in that big brain of yours, because it's gonna guide you through so much. Do anything you have to do for what you think is right and for the people you love, and don't ever be embarrassed of who you are, got it?"

Dakota had remembered that conversation like it was yesterday, and she cherished it close to her heart. That talk was a big breakthrough to her when her and her father hit the road after her mother's death, and she felt better after that about having the last name Dayley. She always went back to that conversation because it related to her the most, and it was definitely one of her best memories with her father.

She missed him dearly and would do anything to get him back, but she knew that there was no possible way to remember him unless it was through staying active. She felt it was the best way to honor the things that he had taught her and to relive the moments they had with one another. After all, being a criminal was the thing that brought them together after twelve years of running away from him and his past until one day her mom gave up and let him stay and recognized that he would change.

It was short lived when just months later a few men that wanted her father to pay his debts bursted into their house, and accidentally shot her mother. Then they went on the road, Tobias out of his retirement and in grief returned back to his ways, bringing Dakota up along the way.

In the middle of her thoughts, Dakota watched as a black suburban pulled up before her, the headlights blinding her as she turned to face the oncoming car.She immediately straightened up, standing on the ground as the car pulled to a halt and three men got out.

She noticed it to be Toshi and two of his little henchmen, as suspected, and she tried to be as calm as possible while approaching the man, extending out a hand to him.

"Mr. Hamada, charmed," she said with a small smile as he firmly took her hand and shook it.

"I'm sure," he replied, a small smile of his own resting deadly on his face. She wanted to slap it off of him after hearing him so cocky, but she dismissed the thought. She needed to know who these people were, and she needed it quick.

"So, let's get down to the point," he started, making a signal with his hands to assure his men that they could stand at ease. They obeyed, Dakota watched, and leaned against the suburban simultaneously.

"What would you like to know?" He simply asked.

"As much as you can provide. Who are they firstly?" Dakota was teeming with anticipation. She couldn't wait to know who they were, especially the intruiging one in the mask that was somehow still stuck on her brain after their encounter.

She couldn't help but remember those big blue eyes that bore into her when he had found her underneath the desk...

"If you want a straight answer, they're up and coming. They've been under the radar for the amount of time that they've been around, but it doesn't mean they're not as successful nor as dangerous as anyone else," Toshi started, looking over Dakota for any sign of recognition. When he could see she was very eager to hear more, he continued.

"They call themselves the Fake AH Crew strangely. We've done business with them a few times, much as yourself, and they're just as reliable and determined as you are, Ms. Dayley. They're relentless and ruthless, especially one of them, I can't remember which, but he's just plain on the psychotic side. Maybe you should skip town for a while, but I know that you're too much of a fighter to do that."

She ignored his comment and thought about how he had said that they're hidden pretty well from the public's eye.

"If they're so successful and under the radar, then that must mean one of their men is pretty resourceful when it comes to computers," she blurted more to herself, but Toshi caught it and nodded.

"Yes, if I do recall, the computer tech is Jack. He's also supposed to be an expert with planes and cars and is supposed to handle them pretty well."

"Well, him and I need to race then," Dakota said with a tiny smirk, causing Toshi to chuckle.

"You are quite the utility yourself when it comes to this business."

Dakota took the compliment and made a glance towards the other two men, then settled back on Toshi. "What else can give me that's useful?"

The man cleared his throat, trying to remember what he could about the crew. He had not took much notice to them other than that they were good workers.

"Like I said, they're very devout and determined. They'll do anything they can to get their objective done. From the looks of it though, they're not just coworkers, they're more than that, like a family. So when one of them is in trouble, you'll find they're very loyal and protective."

"Good to know. You got names? I'm assuming the four that I saw that night aren't the only members," she said, crossing her arms and leaning her weight onto one foot.

"You'd be correct in assuming so."

Toshi hesitated a moment because he couldn't quite remember every single one of them from the crew. He hadn't paid much attention to them other than the jobs that they did and how well they did them.

"Geoff," the kingpin began, his eyes flicking over Dakota's body once for he had not seen her in such a revealing outfit. It was usually long black everything with her. "He's the leader of the group. He has a pretty good trait and he's pretty organized most of the time. I have nothing but respect for him because I wouldn't be able to keep his corporation in control considering how disfunctional they all are."

The air became forceful at that moment and the Triad man stopped to stand his ground, then continued.

"The angry one, if I remember correctly, he's Michael, and the British one is Gavin. The man who wears glasses and has black hair is Ray, and I can't recall for the life of me that tallest one's name, but he does wear a skeleton mask."

Dakota huffed at the fact that she'd still have to wait to learn the makes guy's name, but if they were truly coming after her, then she was going to find out sooner or later.

The woman spoke again, trying her hardest to repeat the names in her brain and the description of each of them although they were pretty brief.

"I think I got it for now. There's nothing else that I should really know?"

Toshi blinked. "No, I don't believe so."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that they've locked onto me by now also."

"I'd say so too. They won't be coming now, but don't second guess that they won't come tomorrow as soon as they can. Your best bet would be to go home and plan on your next step immediately or evacuate, but I know you're more of a fighter, Ms. Dayley."

Dakota produced a small, close mouthed smile and walked to Toshi, extending her arm that the man willingly took and shook.

"Thank you, Mr. Hamada. Its greatly appreciated to know some of this stuff. Maybe it can somehow give me a jump on them."

"Perhaps," he returned the grin, and before he could pull away to go back to the suburban, Dakota gripped his hand even tighter to force their gazes onto each other. Toshi became startled and he knew that his men were suddenly trained on them, preparing for whatever was going to happen. But he became even more startled when Dakota let go and backed away a bit, still straining to look at his face.

She sighed, then rubbed her elbow sheepishly. "Are they really as dangerous as you said earlier?"

 

Mr. Hamada was taken aback by her question. He had never sensed so much anxiety within the woman before him, and to see the jittery look that resided in her light blue orbs while she anticipated his answer was weird to experience for him. She was such a strong and confident person, and to see her like that was almost unsettling to him.

He thought about the Fake AH Crew and asked himself if they really were a force to be reckoned with. Of course, it wasn't like they weren't, but if they really posed such a threat, then he wouldn't have conducted business with them. Or he would have offed them by now.

They were a good crew and worked well together, but she really shouldn't have been so worried. She was the daughter of a legend after all, and with his blood and soul and training, Dakota was a match for a thousand men, let alone the six that were probably after her.

"If I may say something, Dakota, its that any group of men hellbent on trying to obtain money and power are dangerous. Yes, they are a pretty good team together and they may be crazy, but I don't think you should concern yourself. Bloodline aside, you're very talented and if it were me, I wouldn't mess with you personally. You're just as intimidating as anyone I've ever met in this business."

Dakota felt better while listening to Toshi speak, and although she could hear the sincerity in his voice which was pretty rare for a major gang boss, she couldn't help but have an instinct feeling that something was going to happen when she met up with this crew once and for all.

She let Toshi go, and he strode to the suburban, opening one of the doors, but before she could turn and do the same, she heard his voice one last time.

"And Dakota?"

Dak remained where she was, her eyes flickering up to Toshi's, and when blue met brown, he finished his thought.

"Your services are no longer needed."

With that, he stepped into the car that came to life, and it peeled out of the abandoned industrial docks, never to be seen by Dakota's eyes ever again.

The Dayley woman made her way over to her own car, eyeballing it, and she kept repeating the names of the crew to herself. When she was confident that she had successfully remembered them and their descriptions, she took a breath to cleanse herself, then stated to no one in particular, "Let's see where tomorrow leads."

Dakota finally got into her own classic car, getting out of the dock as quickly as possibly so she could take Toshi's advice and plan out what to do for the coming day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna give credit to everyone who had the idea that the crew bought out a whole building for themselves. I liked it and wanted to use it myself! But looks like everyone is getting dirt on one another, Dakota's father is revealed to be the one and only Tobias Dayley by her flashback, and they're one step closer to another meet up! BTW, I wanted Geoff to be the only one who's married for story purposes, so don't be discouraged. It'll all work out, trust me!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Hope that it's still pretty readable and not confusing. Also, at some points, I'm gonna assign songs to these chapters that you can listen to. It might be ones that inspired me with the chapter or songs that just go along with it. I listen to literally all kinds of genres of music, so feel free to listen to them whenever I put them in there, or you don't have to! It's just a little touch I've always wanted to do. Anyways, here's another chapter, and expect a meet up cause it's finally here!

The next day was pretty high speed for the Fake AH Crew as it was the day they were going to chase after the ghost that had been evading them ever since she stole their work. As soon as they all woke up and met in the setup room to go over their plan that they had elaborated the day before, they were all rushing themselves with the sudden kick of adrenaline that they had.

It wasn't so much that they were excited to find her, but they were pretty stoked that this girl could be Tobias Dayley's kid. For them, he was like a role model and he was the kind of criminal that they aspired to be, so running after his maybe daughter was the next best thing. They were completely ready and totally terrified of the fact that this Dakota girl could be the offspring of a notorious man who went down in history.

Well, not all of them were as stoked as the next. It was really only Gavin, Ray, and Jack who were pretty much fans of the thought. As for the other three, they had their own thoughts about finally meeting up with the woman face to face. Although they thought it was really, really cool too, Michael, Geoff, and Ryan had some other opinions on the matter.

In fact, Michael was very much almost the opposite of willing to meet the woman because he was the one who had yelled in her face and basically threatened her, so if she was anything like her possible father, then Michael was not entertained. He didn't want to get beat by a legend's daughter all because he couldn't keep his mouth shut for once. His stupid inability to keep quiet always somehow got him in trouble, and this time, it could have been serious.

He hated that his first encounter with the rumored Tobias's daughter could be one that ended in him getting a few cracked ribs or even dead, and Michael cursed himself for it. Some day he'd have to learn to control his rage.

Geoff wasn't as impressed as everyone else. Yeah, it was cool that Dakota could be his kid and all, but he was still pretty pissed that she had messed up the whole deal between them and the Triads, and he definitely wanted to find her to ask about that, not about her family tree.

And Ryan? He was psyched, scared, and intrigued all at the same time. Psyched and scared was the obvious one, but he was ready to meet the woman again, this time his way and not hers.

He really couldn't describe why he was so ecstatic to reunite with her face to face again, but something told him that he really wanted to relive that moment of the fear and tension that they had both shared. Sure, it sounded crazy, but for some odd reason, that was originally the thing that he wanted to feel the most again.

A rerun of her or him pointing a gun at the other's face and staring down the barrel, both of their eyes locked onto one another as if the world was going to end at any moment for either of them. Their breaths synchronizing as one in their terrified/escalated state, and their muscles tense while one of them had the trigger ready to fire.

He could almost visualize the glint of fear and or ecstasy in her blue eyes, just above the golden ring that caged in the pupil, and he could practically sense the emotion flowing through her in that situation. It was a nice kind of feeling for him, and that's how he knew that he really was the craziest one in the crew, because he imagined a beautiful woman with a gun or being stared down by one and relished in the feelings that could go through her mind.

Normal people didn't think of that, right?

Yet, maybe, there was a doubt that had suddenly been creeping up into his mind that possibly he just wanted to see her, but before he could ponder upon it, he heard a voice override his thoughts, and he quickly dismissed them.

His own blue eyes found their way to the voice before he realized it was Geoff overlooking everyone who was in the setup room, his hands clasped together as his gaze tried to focus on them all at once. Ryan could tell he was absolutely more than ready to get this over with, so he stopped trying to understand himself and instead listened to his friend.

"Alright, so, are we all familiar with what everyone is doing today?" Geoff questioned, causing the others to nod vigorously, much to his satisfaction. Even though he knew that they were more than familiar with the plan, he just wanted to run over it one last time in case, God forbid, there was another screw up.

"Just to get this straight, someone explain it to me so we can all be clear what's gonna go down."

Immediately, Gavin's hand shot up much like a child in class, and Geoff merely pointed at him, then returned his hand to his chin while his arm rested on a makeshift base that was created by his other arm.

"Okay, lads and gents," Gavin spoke cheerfully standing up on his feet and walking in front of everyone. Geoff had half a mind to tell him to cut it with the dramatics, but he knew that Gav was excited, and he decided against ruining the boy's spirits.

"So, what everyone's objective is: is to find the girl at any of the three locations with the person who's been assigned with you. It's me and Jack going to the shoddy little apartment on the south side of town, Michael and Ryan going to the beach house on the highway north of here, and Geoff and Ray are going to the last location downtown, the high end apartments that's actually generally close to here," Gavin paused to see if everyone was following him, and when he was returned with a nod by the other five, he continued.

"If any of us find her, then we keep her in her place and report to the others, waiting for their backup to come and assist with whatever it is we're going to do with her, right Geoff?"

"That's right, Gav. Does anyone have questions, suggestions, anything at all before we split up?"

Ryan was the next to instantly shoot up a hand and Geoff willingly took the gesture. He cleared his throat, trying his best to be as serious as possible.

"There's absolutely no harm to go her way. If she puts up a fight and you need to restrain her, then you gotta do what you gotta do, but if you at all hurt her, then she won't cooperate. To her, we're just a bunch of vigilantes who were in the wrong time at the wrong place, and she's probably already non-compliant as it is towards us. Got it?"

Michael was about to make some kind of remark, but Jack beat him to talking.

"Are you fucking kidding me? If she's anything like Tobias, then I'm gonna play fucking Santa as much as I can!" he exclaimed, his hand up in the air as if he were swearing to do it on his life. The others busted out into extreme fits of laughter as they all knew that she had called him Santa on their first encounter and they thought it was fucking hilarious.

"Okay, okay, although that is _fucking_ funny as dicks," Geoff started, trying to compose himself again while putting emphasis on the word fucking, "we need to focus. Are we all good to go?"

Without any further suggestions or comments from any of them, the crew parted ways, ganging up with their respective partners and all heading separate ways, on to find Dakota Dayley.

-

The quiet waves of the ocean crashed onto the shore lazily before Dakota's eyes, and she watched them as she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and arms wrapped around them. She could feel the slight mist that rose off of the water and sprayed towards her with every time a wave would beach itself and then slowly cast back out before beaching itself yet again. The sand below said water was mushy and cold against the woman's bare toes that she had taken out of her socks and boots while sitting there.

Above the ocean, the sky was grey and lined with black, all swirling into one as it reached the horizon, and she noted that a storm might be coming pretty soon with the way those clouds were brewing. She also noted the parallel that it outlined, because there was definitely a storm coming her way.

Dakota had been out on the beach for quite some time, looking off into it, dressed in a pair of jeans and a grey tank that she had threw on earlier that morning, and she really just wanted to sit there and watch the sea as it swayed side to side underneath the ominous looking sky. She hadn't been to that particular spot in a long time since she spent most of her time in the city lately, preparing for jobs or heists, but she came there whenever she was exhausted, being looked for, or laying low. In this case, it was all three for once.

The Dayley woman was surely exhausted after the past two eventful days and the disappointments that came with them, and she was definitely laying low and being looked for. But even as obvious as it was, her beach house and that spot that she was sitting in currently was the perfect place to stay under the radar because it was out in the open, and no one ever expected that.

If anything, she was trying to be found.

Even as her blue eyes cascaded over the dark ocean and she shivered at the thought of someone on the hunt for her, she had replayed her conversation with Toshi over and over and gave some very deep thought to how she should handle whatever it was that was going on. She wanted to heed his warning and skip town, but he was completely right when he said that she was too much of a fighter to just leave and be a coward.

In her mind, she thought that if maybe she was found, then she could settle her quarrel with this Fake AH Crew once and for all, because first off, the job was hers before theirs, so they had no right to be pissed at her when they were the ones that ruined her quest. They signed themselves up for that. But also if she was found right away, then they could all prevent dragging this out and making it a bigger thing than it already was, and Dak was not up for that. She wanted it to be over as soon as possible, and by being in the open instead of taking off, it was a better possibility to do just that.

From the information she received, she knew that they were after her at that same exact moment that she sat on the cold, grainy sand and overlooked that sea behind her beach house. And if their Jack person was as good as she was told, then there was no doubt that he had figured everything about her and maybe even pulled up her empty records, thanks to her own super smart tech guy. She was basically counting on the fact that a few of them were on their way over to her beach house too, and if it was true, then it was a good thing.

The wind picked back up harshly and whipped her long, dark brown hair around the sides of her face. Dakota grabbed it with one hand and pushed it behind her to try and wrangle the wavy locks back together, thinking to herself as she saw a strand that she needed to dye it again because the color was mismatched. She quickly stowed the thought away because she had more pressing matters to think about.

What if Toshi had been wrong and the crew turned out to be a bunch of men holding grudges over a total misunderstanding and they killed her without even saying a word to her? Surely he wouldn't lie to her because it made no sense why he would. She had been nothing but loyal to him and his gang and their demands, and he seemed to be pretty genuine when he had told her that these other people were nothing to worry about. After all, his reputation of a truthful and upholding kingpin proceeded him, and there was no way that his reputation lied too.

Dakota was just being paranoid and that was expected since she didn't know who the Fake AH Crew was until last night's talk with the Triad leader, but she couldn't shake the previous feeling that something was going to happen to her when she finally met up with these guys. It just stuck with her, and she could call herself a psychic because when she had a feeling, it usually was proven right.

Dakota remained calm knowing that she would never know until the men found her, so with that, she stood up and grabbed her phone, put on her socks and boots, and moved back up the beach towards the house that stood on wooden pillars and towered over her and everyone else around her. She reached the wooden stairwell, ascending up it to the sliding door that faced out towards the ocean. The woman slid inside, closing the glass doors lightly, then retreated into the kitchen and made her way to the fridge.

Her hands found the handle and pulled it open, next finding a bottle of water that she took out and closed the chrome door again, a small slam producing as it rested back into it's original place. Dak chugged the water bottle swiftly, letting the cool liquid slide down her throat that was hoarse from dryness, and after disposing of it, she looked up to the clock on the microwave.

8:34.

She groaned at how early it was and leaned against the counter, running a few fingers through her hair to tame it's wildness, then closed her lids to assess a way to prepare herself for whoever's arrival.

"I could always go with guns," Dakota mumbled aloud, thinking of the many ways that she could strap a piece to her body that would go unnoticed until unsheathed. She also remembered the various amounts of weapons that were stashed away around the house in case something along the lines of people coming to take her out occurred, and she thought long and hard about if she really wanted to be strapped or not.

With a gun at her side, she was more intimidating and could defend herself pretty easily, but without it she'd look more reasonable and cooperative. Yet again, if she had a gun on her, there'd be no need to use it unless she felt threatened or they were going to try to pull something on her. She finally just decided to keep one on her since she had no idea how these people operated and if they were unpredictable or not.

Dakota fell to a knee by the sink, grasping a pistol that was stuck to the underside of the granite, and she stowed it away into her waistband, placing her tank over it to make sure that it was pretty not noticeable. She then stood again and stole another glance towards the clock, seeing that it had only changed to 8:36. She'd have to play the waiting game and let them come to her now.

-

"God damn, man," Michael huffed, rubbing his eyes with one of his free hands that weren't on the wheel as he coasted himself and Ryan down the Great Ocean Highway leading just out of Los Santos. Ryan turned to his friend quizzically, giving him a look with an eyebrow raised as he turned down the radio that was obnoxiously loud between the two men.

"What?"

Michael grunted and squinted beneath his eyebrows, trying to find a place to merge into the left lane. "There's so much traffic today! I mean, what the hell?! Did everyone just decide to go on this highway today and ruin our search by delaying our speed because dick drivers want to be slow in front of us?!"

Michael then maneuvered quickly into the other lane, causing the cars behind him to honk in disapproval, which he replied with a few curses and menacingly staring into the rearview mirror. Ryan chuckled at his friend and then gazed out of the windshield, looking for a certain exit that the two would take once they made it to their destination.

The beach house was supposed to be pretty close to Tongva Hills, but just far enough away that it was on the outskirts of Los Santos and positioned onto the shoreline below it. It was a beautiful and peaceful place, and especially with the way that the weather was that day, chilly and gloomy, he thought it'd be perfect to lounge around at. The guys had been to the spot a few times, just not the same area, and it was mainly a place where couples would go to relax and picnic, or teens would have a huge bonfire and drink themselves into oblivion.

Despite being older than those kids, the guys had done it a few times, just go there to get drunk, and Ryan remembered an instance where they had got so drunk that they fell asleep on the beach and had to be removed the next morning by the coast guard that was coming in for a daily sweep of the shore. Even Ryan had gotten drunk. It was actually his first time.

Ryan didn't like to drink no matter what kind of person he was. He just couldn't deal with liquor or beer ever since he was pretty young and was first offered it, so he kept declining it all the while that he lived his life. Ray had been the same way when they first met coming into the crew, but it all changed that fateful night on the beach.

The crew had took themselves to the spot after a particularly long day of planning, one of their first ever heists that would actually rake in some dough, because they wanted to have a little fun. It started out like any normal night on the town: everyone piled into their cars or rode with someone else (that time they had all taken two cars, two land rovers that were from an old score and were just resting in the garage of HQ) and one would follow the other wherever it was going. The guys always argued over where to go because with six different people, they all of course had their own ideas on what to do and what to buy. It was like they argued over anything and everything, but it had always been that way and none of them knew better.

So, with Gavin, Michael, and Ray, or known as the Lads, in one car and Geoff, Jack, and Ryan in another, also known as the Gents, all raced to their first destination that they had bickered over when they left HQ: the liquor store. Well, the only two who really didn't care for going there were the men that didn't drink, but the other four insisted, and just to make them happy, Ryan and Ray reluctantly accepted.

When the men reached the liquor store it was like little kids running into a toy store, or a candy store, and they all raced inside, dragging in the usual two designated drivers with them. On the way over there, inside of the car, Geoff had downed two beers already, almost like it was nothing, not to mention the other two beers he had at the apartments, so he had a pretty good little buzz working it's way into his mind.

He wrapped his arms around Ray and Ryan when everyone was ravaging the store like a bunch of savages, and he showed them around, explaining the kind of drunk he got from each and every bottle on the shelves and the beers in the fridges and so on. The two men just nodded and listened to his nearly incoherent babblings, until finally they were forced to say something when Geoff told them they had to pick a bottle for themselves.

"I really don't feel comfortable doing that," Ryan replied with a small stutter, trying to shift out of Geoff's grasp, but his friend only grabbed on tighter and hooked one of his fingers in Ryan's shirt when the sudden movement almost made him wobble.

"Oh, come on, don't be so prude," Geoff laughed with a slight smirk, and clutching both men closer to him, he pointed all three of them towards the hard liquor. "At least humor me. Get yourselves a bottle and if you don't drink it, then it'll just be for us and you guys can go back to your lame, sober lives."

The two men gave the other a nervous glance, then for some reason, their hands reached out and they both took a bottle of some kind of cheap rum and the clerk rang them up. Outside, everyone argued again on what to do next, when finally, an also already slightly buzzed Michael suggested that they head to the beach and make a bonfire of their own.

The crew had never done such a thing before, and with it only being a few months that they knew each other, they were always trying new things with each other that maybe only one or two of them had done before and suggested to everyone else. It was a tempting idea and finally when everyone was compliant, they all took off down the Great Ocean Highway, seeing how fast they could get to wherever it was that they were going, zooming in and out of the lone cars and racing both of the cars for a few stretches, then slowing down when a cop car would pull up in the opposite direction. Michael, insisting that he was okay to drive with many protests from Ray and Gavin, led the six of them to a spot that he had gone with his girlfriend, Lindsay, at one point when they first started dating.

There, all of them got out and with bags chop full of liquor and beer, sauntered down towards the shore with the sun setting right before them. A bunch of teens were already there, setting up bonfires everywhere and pulling out drinks in brown paper sacks and laughing with all of their friends beside the warm glow of the fire.

The Fake AH Crew lit up a large bonfire themselves, unwrapping the presents they had bought at the store and immediately went to work on them. The only ones who sat around and watched their companions get drunk and listen to their hilarious banters or rants or stories were Ryan and Ray, and as the night went on, so did the taunts from the other four men.

"Just take a fucking sip at least!" Jack yelled pretty loudly to the two sober men, but to him, he thought he was whispering and didn't pay any attention to it although everyone else around him was staring.

"Jesus, Jack, take it down a notch! You're gonna kill my vibe, man," Michael yelled back, him too being louder than what he thought he was in his own mind. He was sipping away at a half downed bottle of vodka that him and Gavin, who sat beside him and giggled at what seemed like nothing, were sharing. He then thrust the clear bottle into the British man's hands -that accepted it with a confused look and suddenly remembered what he was holding and took huge swig- and Michael got around the fire to Ray and Ryan on the other side of it.

His curly hair was glistening in the embers of the fire that reflected off of his body as he tried to make his way around it, almost tripping over himself, and his sharp jawline was glowing orange and illuminating the outline of his face. The other five turned silent, watching him, and once he was on the other side of the bonfire, he fell over onto his hands and knees in the cold sand next to Ray where the untouched bag with the two bottles of unopened rum sat.

Michael grasped one of the bottles, popped it open, threw it into Ray's hands, then did the same with the other bottle for Ryan. He could feel twelve eyes on him, but he didn't care, and he instead kneeled in front of both people, sternly observing them. His mind was swimming and he could barely see since his vision had reduced and blurred and it looked like the world beneath him was swaying as he sat, but he still didn't take his gaze off of the other two before him.

Ryan's mind too was swimming, but with nervousness and fear. He had never taken a drink of liquor like this before, and the only time he had even drank any kind of alcohol was when he mistakenly took a swig of one of his high school friend's opened bottles of Pisswasser, thinking it was root beer. He really didn't want to drink, he had just had too many experiences and he had heard how bad it tasted and all of the stories from others, it just added up, and he didn't want to be a part of it's hold. Ray too was taken aback and was trying his hardest to refuse all of the attention that waited for him to slip up and take a drink, and he took a take over to Ryan's face that was drowning in the same uneasiness that he had himself.

After a few more moments of motionless, voiceless silence, Michael grunted and stared harder, his inebriated mind still trying to stay intact somewhat and process what was going on. "Well? I'm not gonna sit here all night!"

Even as reluctant as he was, Ryan decided that the best thing to do to settle Michael down was take a sip and then maybe he would go away and return to telling ridiculous stories and yelling at beachgoers that passed by them, then laugh as loudly as heavenly possible. Maybe if he just obliged to their wants then they would forget about it until the next time that everyone went out to drink. He could deal with that, just not the constant pressure and then basically being forced against his will.

Finally, Ryan took a swig. Ray followed like it was switch in his mind that made him. Michael left. The friends all resumed. But that didn't stop the both of them from taking more gulps after. And before they knew it, their peers pressuring them had paid off, because both of them had downed more than half of their bottles and joined the drunken fun of chasing off other beach bums and chasing each other and yelling and laughing and letting loose.

That was the night that Ryan and Ray swore off their no alcohol pact to themselves, and even from then on, they enjoyed drinking with their friends. Maybe it just finally hit them that they were criminals and they deserved to let go every once in a while and wreak havoc with their friends drunkenly, or maybe they were just tired of the taunts. Whatever it was, it changed their lives that night, and even looking back on it all while in the car with Michael, Ryan began to smile to himself, even chuckling when thinking back on all of the chaos they caused that night.

Michael saw his friend from the corner of his eye.

"What's so funny?"

Ryan's head snapped a bit towards the man driving in the other seat, stopping his memory, and the smile on his face stayed as he replied.

"Nothing. Just thinking about the first time I got drunk is all. Not too far from where we're going."

Michael's mouth spread into a large grin upon listening to Ryan's reasoning, remembering very well that night.

"God, we got so wasted! I still don't remember forcing you to drink, man," he laughed.

"Well, you did, and although I hated every second of it at first, I'm kind of glad you did. Now I guess I'm not as much of a stick in the mud as I used to be," Ryan laughed too out of instinct.

"Nah, man. You were always fun! We didn't know each other long at that time though, and I guess we all wanted to know we could trust you or something like that. Can't trust a man who buys a good bottle of rum and doesn't even drink it. There's a special ring in Hell for a man like that.

"Actually, I think you mean scotch, but thanks, Michael."

Michael rolled his eyes upon the correction. "Aaaaaand there goes what I said about you being fun, poof! Right out the window, cause you pull things like that."

Ryan again chuckled genuinely while Michael made his way further down the highway, and Ryan took up the responsibility of pulling up the GPS and seeing how close they were to their destination. It couldn't have been much farther because the houses were starting to thin out, and he knew that at this rate, there would be no more of them in about half of a mile.

Just as he suspected, the GPS on his smartphone told him that they were nearing their location, and he directed Michael every step of the way up until they were in the parking lot of the last three houses. He remembered from the picture that Jack had showed him that the house was the last on the right, a large structure with a modern day beach cabin kind of thing. It was two stories and pretty spacious, a huge bay window at the back and even larger windows spread throughout the place. Little palm trees were dotted around the property up until it reached a flight of stairs and dropped off into the beach sand below, the ocean a football field's length from the actual house itself.

It was supposed to have allegedly been sitting on wooden supports like most of the other houses built halfway on the ground, halfway above the ground. The outside was a pale kind of blue, white framing along the edges and the windows and the door to match. The place was actually pretty massive, and the picture didn't do it complete justice, because as he sat there looking at Dakota Dayley's beach home, he realized that she had to have had some serious money to buy such a thing as that.

"I'll give it to your girlfriend," Michael started, but not before Ryan huffed at the word "girlfriend," "she's got taste."

"Wonder if she got all that money herself or from her dad's eighty mil," Ryan mused more of to himself, but Michael caught it and he nodded.

"Maybe both. I swear though, man. If he really is her father, I'm gonna have to kiss her feet like she's royalty or something, cause she's gonna whoop my ass for the way I talked to her."

"Well, Michael, let's go see for ourselves," Ryan said as the two parked, and he threw on his mask just for good measure. The girl wouldn't recognize him without it, and for some reason, he wanted her to.

_God, I don't get why I'm so caught up with just seeing her again, but it's annoying,_ he thought to himself inconspicuously.

The two men abandoned their car simultaneously and looked around their surroundings, making sure that no one was going to think of them as suspicious or anything like that. As Michael observed the area, he looked back over towards the woman's house, and sitting in front of it was a black Classic Coquette, resting silently to itself before a parking garage with the door open. The car looked like it was collectively taken care of pretty frequently, and he wondered to himself why it was sat outside of a garage that was open when there was supposed to be a nasty storm brewing in the coming hour.

The curly haired man glanced over to his current partner and noticed that he too was looking upon the car, thinking to himself heavily.

"You think that's just a coincidence that that car is here and the garage door isn't closed, or do you think that she does that with all of her places around the city?" Michael asked jokingly. He knew well and good that it wasn't a coincidence at all.

Ryan slowly turned towards his friend, his eyebrow raised once again to display his thought process.

"I guess we should call the others, ask what's up, and then tell them that we might just have found our culprit."

"Already on it," Michael replied, pulling out his phone and making a conference call with the other two teams that were somewhere around Los Santos digging for the woman in black that they had all been searching for.

It didn't take long for everyone else to find the place that Michael and Ryan were stationed at, and just as soon as everyone arrived, they set their plan into motion by talking it over. Geoff had kept the guys with their respective partners and gave them commands on what to do.

He and Ray were to take the lead in going through the open garage door and investigate if there was a way in through there. Ryan and Michael were to follow as their backup in case this Dakota character was packing any type of heat and they needed someone to watch them. And Jack and Gavin were gonna stand watch, taking on the back entrance and the front entrance. There was no way in hell that she was going to escape them again, and this time they had the element of surprise, or so they thought.

It was a possibility that she knew that they were coming for her, and she could have figured out some type of plan, but no matter the case, all of them were nailed to the outcome of reeling her in once and for all.

At this point, Geoff was really worked up. He was running his words together and held his gun tightly as he pulled it out from his waistband along with everyone else. He couldn't wait to meet the person who ruined one of the best opportunities that his crew had earned so diligently and get whatever it was that was going to settle his anger.

The men all had their bits ready, cocking them and checking to make sure they had plenty of backup clips. In one swift movement, they formed and made their way towards the beach house, legs taking long strides that were made of determination.

As they had all intended, Geoff and Ray took the front of their pack, and the other four fell into place, guns resting deadly in their hands at a relaxed state. The men kept a beeline towards the garage.

"This is it, lads," Gavin chirped in the back of the group, excited to the core that he was going to meet the person that had evaded them that night. He had no idea what she looked like and all kinds of speculations were running through his mind, wondering if she looked like her father or nothing like him at all. He knew that it was a long shot to assume that she was related to Tobias, but all the same, the evidence was pretty prominent to him. The last name was really the big give away, but the fact that Tobias disappeared for twelve years and then reemerged with a teenager in tow to help him rob the whole nation was also a big clue.

He wasn't the only one who was psyched and scared at the same time.

"Yeah, I guess it is," said Ray, his eyes behind his glasses searching the exterior of the house before he and Geoff both entered the property through the garage.

It seemed as though everything was pretty normal inside. There was no movement, no sounds, nothing at all. It could have been like taking candy from a baby, but the part that threw everyone for a curveball was staring them straight in the face subtly: the door leading into the house was slightly ajar, and it made no sense.

Geoff motioned for everyone to stop moving with a fist, and he immediately raised his gun to the door, his blue orbs staring in disbelief at it. He knew that their mission was gonna be easy as soon as they found where the girl was hiding out, but was it really going to be that effortless? Geoff was skeptical as Ryan leaned in between he and Ray, feeling the sense of uneasiness that all of them were feeling as they saw the door cracked.

"You think it's a trap?" he asked huskily, and Geoff did a double take between the people beside him.

"Not sure. There's only one way to find out though. Maybe she was expecting us. Just stay alert," he stated nonchalantly, and he nodded at Jack and Gav in the back. "You guys go ahead and guard the perimeter like we said. Whatever this is, she's a loner and won't get away if we're all ready this time. We've got it in control in here, but if anything goes wrong, be ready to bust in."

"Aye, aye, cap'n!" Jack and Gavin replied mockingly in unison, their tenor and bass voice contradicting one another. The two ran out into the open air that had suddenly turned black and gray, gusts of wind nearly knocking them over as they exited.

Geoff, with a deep breath and his hands still positioning the sight of his pistol on the door, once again spoke. "Alright, here's what we'll do. I'm gonna go over there, check out the inside from what I can see, and if I go inside just follow me. Maybe if we stay quiet and collected then we can slip in and see what's up."

With that, he began to move towards the door, but not without a "be careful" murmured from Michael. He nodded more of to himself and slowly put one foot in front of the other, inching up to the door, and in no time, he was there, checking the inside of the house to the best of his ability. He thoroughly searched and searched, looking for any type of indication that could have told him that anyone was inside.

Although the restrictions he had because the door was blocking the rest of his vision, Geoff took an uneducated guess and concluded that no one was at least in the room that he was peeping into, which looked like a kitchen if he knew anything about what kitchens looked like. Even if someone was in the house, they weren't in that particular room at that time.

The man could feel his stubble itch on his face as he made an effort to cautiously open the door the rest of the way, and the intensity of the break in started to weigh down on him. He wondered to himself if he was making the right call by blindly walking into a woman's house that he knew nothing about and didn't even know if she was dangerous all by herself, and he started to trip a little bit with doubt.

As he started to think, he could hear three sets of footsteps and knew that his guys had followed him as discussed. Geoff kept a steady pace as he crept around the kitchen, trying to find signs of any kind of recent life within the large structure. And that's when it hit him that maybe he was setting him and his crew up for failure.

Like he said, he knew nothing of this woman and her skills, but it was pretty obvious that if she were clever enough to wriggle out of their grasp and to work for the Triads as a one person team and to wipe her background completely off of her records, then she wasn't going to be just a stroll in the park. He was unsure of what he had done suddenly.

She could have rigged the place. Knew that they were coming and set them up. He could have been stepping unknowingly over trip wires to activate some kind of booby trap that she left them, and if he took one step they were done for. Or she could have been taking an ambush strategy and was just waiting for them to mess up. She had time over the past two days to figure out their plans and then come up with heavy artillery to take them all out, one by one.

There were so many possibilities that could have played out, and as a leader, it was his job to worry about them and rethink their steps and become more aware of what could have happened because of his decisions. As a leader, it was his responsibility and he knew that from the start, but it was a risk he was willing to take and it inspired him to be a damned good one.

So when he, Ray, Michael, and Ryan stumbled into the living room after securing the kitchen, and so many thoughts ran through Geoff's head about whether he had made a good decision or not, there was one possibility that never dawned on him no matter how obvious it was. He had been thinking up so many ways that they could die going into the house, like as soon as they walked into a room a trigger got pushed and twenty arrows flew right at the four of them, or that other mercs like the woman were hired and they were going to assassinate every single one of them, or that they would fall through a trap door and starve to death, never to be heard from again.

But what he never expected, as the four men waltzed into the living room, ready position with their handguns wrapped tightly in their large hands, was a young woman, clad in a tank top and jeans and work boots, a cup of coffee in her hands, a large, white, wicked smile plastered onto her lifted face, her almost blackened hair wild around her shoulders, and her big, blue eyes fixated on all of them as they came in through the kitchen door. He didn't expect her to open her arms and motion around her when he and his friends kept their guns on her (confused as fuck, might he say) and for her to chuckle when their arms lowered into disarm.

But he least of all expected her to speak, let alone say something that wasn't along the lines of "why are you in my house?" He was so surprised that he listened extra carefully when her smooth, alto voice registered into all of their ears. Geoff didn't want to miss a thing she said for the world.

"Welcome to my lovely beach abode," she cooed, her eyes finding each member in the room until it landed on the skeleton mask that Ryan had on, and her eyes glowed with a certain remembrance. She turned to Geoff, latching onto her coffee again and taking a sip. "You must be the cunning leader, Geoff. Why don't you get your friends in here, that way we can get started? I'm sure you're as anxious as I am for this little... chat."

Dakota smiled again, and although on the inside her heart was racing, she played it off like she knew best.

She tried to approach with the element of surprise, and by the mixed emotions of the men's faces, she was winning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy another chapter everyone! I love you guys for sticking with it. Please, please, please give feedback! It's greatly appreciated!

No one moved.

No one inside of Dakota Dayley's humble beach home moved a muscle, nor did they speak, nor did it seem that anyone took a breath. It was like their actions were contradicting the impending storm outside that moved maliciously in on them (leaving poor Gavin and Jack in the path of destruction, to which Jack had told Gavin before they split up, "Man, we would get stuck with this job when we're about to get blown away by another huge storm this year.") 

Dakota was weirded out by the crew's sudden... _human-ness_. From her understanding from Toshi, it was almost suddenly implied that they were the kind of people who didn't think twice and took whatever it was that would please them. Although Toshi wasn't worried about this crew's danger level, she could see past his high end attitude and witnessed the slight amount of hesitation whenever they had spoke the night before. 

The woman expected them to be relentless, witty, resourceful, and have savage personalities. That's why she was strapped, and that's why she had placed various guns around her house yet again to ensure that she would stand a chance once they found her. She was even a little nervous when she had heard the garage door creak open and listened to the small, stealthy poundings of their footsteps with her sharp and alert ears. 

She even started sucking herself into believing that there was a possibility that these were the men that were going to finally take her down. That they were the ones who were going to claim the wondrous title of executing a Dayley. That finally, after years of living, her life was going to be ripped from her body and they were the ones who did it. 

But as her vibrant, blue eyes searched the four ones staring back at her, she would have been lying if she didn't admit that she didn't think these men were capable of looking so human. 

And it bugged her to her core.

How were they supposed to be so good, so up and coming, if they couldn't even plan ahead of the current impasse?

Dakota looked over them again, this time locking onto the man beneath the skeleton mask she clearly remembered from the other night. His own blues looked so menacing this time around, like they were no longer staring into her soul, but instead killing her from the inside curiously. She didn't even know how that statement made sense, but nonetheless, it made her shiver on the inside.

No matter how human any of them appeared to anyone, they all maintained a strong composure, and it didn't take long for Geoff to reply after the minute of confusion. 

He didn't holster his gun and instead kept it sturdy in his hands, giving Ray a glance, then turned towards the woman. 

"I would say it's nice to finally meet you, but you've given me quite a headache in the past few days, so I can't say that I would be entirely telling the truth."

Dakota, amused, gave a closed-mouth smile. "Well, we all wanna be truthful with each other, now don't we?"

Geoff returned the facial gesture, he wasn't sure if he was trying to mock her or if it was genuine. 

"Yeah, I guess so," he then faced Michael. "Go get Gavin and Jack. Assuming as," he paused, eyeballing Dak, " _friendly_ as Mrs. Dayley is being here-"

"Uh, actually," Dak interjected, trying to lighten the tension a little by being smart and sort of open, "I'm just a miss. Looks like I don't get along with men well enough for them to not want to come find me for revenge purposes, such as now."

Ryan chuckled under his mask lightly, but to his satisfaction, no one heard him. He heard Ray reply with, "I wonder why."

"Correction. As friendly as Ms. Dayley is being here, under assumption, we can at least have them in the room with us and take up her suggestion," Geoff finished.

Michael, compliant as ever although a little hesitant to leave his friends alone, left the room hastily and headed back out the way they came. Dakota observed his departure, then blinked her eyes back onto Geoff. 

She didn't think that he would have looked like that. She anticipated that the leader of a rising crew would have looked more clean cut, less rugged, taller, and collected. But she was apparently dead wrong again. 

Geoff looked punk rock to say the least. He wasn't the tallest in the group, especially compared to mask guy, and he definitely did not look collected. Instead, he looked the opposite. 

He wore a hoodie and gray jeans to match, the sleeves of the hoodie rolled up to reveal tattoo sleeves that were very intricate and actually quite wonderful to her eyes. He had skate shoes and she could even see the remnants of long, checkered socks beneath his jeans. 

His hair was dark brown and his eyes were blue, but the part she noticed the most was his well kept moustache and scruffy beard. He literally looked like a person straight out of a rock magazine that she used to read when she got bored around the house.

He was the only one out of the four that had come in that she didn't recognize though. She also realized that Santa wasn't in their group, so she assumed that he was one of the ones sent outside to guard the house or whatever the hell it was they were supposedly going to do. It seemed that there was only one more person that she hadn't seen out of their crew yet after Geoff, and she waited patiently for the other two to return with the one that she remembered as "M."

As they all awaited Michael's return with Jack and Gavin, Geoff again spoke.

"I must admit, nice place here. You must be pretty good considering the fact that this place must've been easily a million."

Dakota chuckled to herself, raising up her coffee cup to the man.

"Nah. You're trying to get me to brag, but I refuse. I'm conceited, but I'm not conceited enough to try to one up you."

At her reply, Geoff smirked smugly, barely concealing a hearty laugh inflicted by her words. 

"Lady, I don't mean to be an ass, but I have more money than I can handle. I don't think you'd be one upping me on any level," he stated, his face glinting with the type of pride someone might find on a high school jock flaunting off his skills. 

To this, Dakota was actually more amused than she thought she could be. She liked when people were gutsy with her and just as sarcastic or cynical or bold. She appreciated that he was no longer showing off his human essence that she had seen previously, and she especially liked that he wasn't scared to talk back.

It's a good trait in a person that can stand up for themselves and be brazen with their words. It had only been a few minutes passed, and she already got a sense of what kind of person Geoff was.

Dak had always been good at reading up on people upon either a first glance or a first meet. She had to in order to know who was faulty and who was trustworthy in the type of business that she resided in. For now, just by exchanging a few sentences with him, Geoff seemed to indeed be the cunning, smart allec type who didn't take no for an answer and always got down to business. Although his appearance threw her off at first, he quickly revealed his underside that was just as dauntless and outspoken as she was.

"Oh," Dakota continued, flicking a piece of her hair back into place with her free hand. "Trust me, I wouldn't doubt anything you said at all. In actuality, I'm kind of counting on it."

Before Geoff could retort anything back to her, Michael came back into the room, sporting Jack and Gavin with tussled hair and disheveled clothes from the harsh wind outside. Dakota observed the three, counting them off: M, Santa, and a new person, more than likely the only other one that she didn't know. 

He was skinny, with an either ash brown or dirty blonde type color hair, round, blue eyes, and a slight beard thing going on. Just from a glance she assumed that he was the British one that Toshi had talked about, mainly because she knew everyone's voice beside his. 

Dak smiled as they arrived and greeted them. 

"How nice of you two to join us finally. I wanted to start our conversation with you guys here and not left to hell out in that storm." 

"Yeah, I'm just gonna stop you right there and tell you to cut the bullshit. No happy-go-lucky, 'look how innocent I am' anymore, got it?" Geoff started, taking a step towards the woman a few feet before him. "We know you're not like that, and we damn sure aren't, so let's just get on mutual ground right here." Dakota shot him a glance, comprehending his words entirely, and with a small, strained nod, she agreed to his request.

"Okay, sure," her voice cooed. She suddenly became a lot more serious, and underneath the non-lit lights of the living room, the guys watched as her face transformed to an entirely sinister emotion. Ryan immediately remembered how bewildering she had looked the other night and thought that these two faces were pretty much the same.

"If you really want to play that game, then I guess you can rest assured knowing that if I get a vibe that I don't like, I have a tendency to act on it. You're in my house anyways," the young woman stated, line of vision boring into the leader of the Fake AH Crew.

Geoff felt a little uneasy with her eyes staring at him so crazily, but he stayed calm and sent a nod of his own. "Understandable." 

He paused himself to take a look around the room, noticing the bay window staring out to the beach and the livid ocean beyond it. The room itself was quite large, with a white couch that practically bordered it all around, and lots of black glass shelves with books or pictures or CD's or DVD's on them. 

There was an HD TV on a wondrous looking stand, with consoles and even more movie cases stowed away in it. But the part that caught him the most were the incredible designs carved into the walls, and the big white columns holding up the top of the house, and the stairway that spiraled up behind Dakota's figure. She did have a taste in interior design, as everything had a color scheme and looked top notch and taken care of well, just like the Coquette outside.

"Well," he heard the female voice say, and it caused him to turn his attention back towards her. 

"If you're ready, then make yourself at home so we can get this on the road," Dakota said, turning on her heels to walk around the couch and into the middle of the living room. The six men immediately followed and took seats on the couch, besides Geoff and the owner herself, who stood up and leaned on opposite parts of the room from one another.

Gavin and Ray got closest to the side of the room that had an extensive picture wall so they could be nosey and get a glimpse of her inside self, while the others sat as far away from each other as possible.

"I gotta say," Geoff started in. "I didn't think you'd basically just let us waltz in like that. I expected more of a fight from the woman who fucked up our score so easily."

"Well, then I guess I have to admit I expected more from a group of criminals than just breaking into my house with the intention of doing some kind of interrogation on me because you think that _I'm_ the one who ruined 'your' score," Dakota replied blatantly, crossing her arms while leaning back onto the wall behind her.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

The others could taste the offense in Geoff's voice as he threw back a question of his own, and they stayed silent to let the two work out whatever it was that they were about to.

"It means that you have no right to come here with a vengeance when I wasn't the one who fucked you over. If anything, why don't you go barge into Toshi Hamada's place and ask him why he assigned two groups to the same job at once?"

Geoff scoffed. 

"I already spoke to him. He warned us before we took the offer. I don't have anything personal against him."

"Oh, but it's personal when it comes to me?"

"Yeah, it is. What don't you get about that? You're supposed to be pretty smart, Dakota."

Dakota smiled to herself with a slight chuckle, then pushed herself off of the wall to stand up, her arms still crossed over her chest. 

"Well, let me just get this straight then. You're upset with me because I was assigned a job before you were, and all of a sudden you and your friends here get put on the same score, and we just so happen to attempt it on the same day at the same time?"

She placed a finger on her chin and looked at the masked man once, quickly, then turned back to facing Geoff, who was staring intently and quizzically at the woman. 

"You came here today to blame me for taking the manifests, when in reality that was a possibility all along that you were well aware of, and just because they're void and not worth the money now, you thought it'd be a good idea to find me for whatever reason it was that you cooked up. And I mean, I'm not criticizing you, I'd be pretty pissed too. But didn't you at least take the time to think it over that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't your enemy in this case? That I was just a sap who fell into the ludicrous offer of an international kingpin who mistakenly screwed himself and us over?"

Geoff wasn't happy at that point. In fact, he was again seething. He was angry at the way that she was talking to him, making him seem like a complete idiot in front of his crew, and at the way that she was so confident in herself. 

He didn't like the way that her face contorted as she spoke like she knew she was about to win. He didn't like how comfortable she stood. He didn't like the easiness in her tone.

He didn't like her, basically, and that was because everything she had just said made sense. It made absolute sense to him and to all of them, and they knew it. Dakota was entirely right, and he hated her for it, because if there was anything more that he abhorred than her at that moment, then it was the fact that he had been wrong.

They ran into her house just like she had stated, and they were there to do whatever it took to get her to talk (for whatever reason it was, Geoff was drawing blank and couldn't even remember why he wanted to to find her in the first place anymore.) 

He realized that he was just discontent, and that he acted out of rage more than anything. She was not to blame for the incident, it was indeed a miscalculation by the leader of the Triads, and as he stood there looking upon this girl, he couldn't help but wonder _what was he there for?_

Why was he there? Why had he even broke into her home and planned for two days how to do such a thing if she was left in the mud as much as they were?

As if she could read his mind, Dakota cocked her head at the Fake AH Crew leader.

"What did you come here for, Geoff?"

Their eyes met for a moment. She could read him like a book now. He was looking into his self, trying to come up with some kind of ridiculous statement to not look like a jackass so he didn't have to explain his actions. He was trying so hard, and just before he could utter the words he was so desperately making up on his own, a loud, weird noise arose from the end of the couch, causing everyone in the room to face it. 

They were all looking upon Gavin, who was now standing and pointing wildly at a picture on the wall closest to where he and Ray were sitting. Ray looked as surprised as Gav was wild, making really weird noises that were full of... excitement?

"I knew it! I told all of you!" He yelled, still pointing at the picture as Ray sat there, nodding and agreeing with the Brit. 

"Goddammit, Gavin!" Michael screamed, his voice starting from a growl to a full on scream. "What the fuck is your fucking problem?! I swear to God you can fuck anything up! What the fuck is so goddamn important that you just had to interrupt this?!"

"Its her! And him! It's them!"

" _What do you even mean by that?! It doesn't make sense! Use your fucking words!_ "

"Look!" Gavin grabbed the picture off of the wall, to which Dakota instinctively moved her hand to her gun in her waistband and let it rest there. 

The only person who noticed her movement was Ryan, who watched her instead of his extremely bubbly friend, and he immediately got off of the couch to put a soft hand on her shoulder. Dakota snapped her head towards him, to which Ryan only replied with a slight shake of his own head. It wasn't much, but it somehow got Dakota to reluctantly remove her hand as she stood tense next to the tall man and onlooked the scene unfolding before them. 

Gavin held up the metal frames picture above his head like it was a trophy of some sorts, and it took a lot of squinting and yelling at Gavin to stop jumping up and down and moving, but finally, the excitement from him radiated out into the room and into the bodies of everyone else, also enstilling fear in some cases.

In the picture, there were two people. One stood on the left, a tall, sturdy built man with a white t-shirt that fit to his body tightly, his jet black hair pulled into a small ponytail, and he sported a thick goatee. His face was as strong as he was, and wide, and his eyes pierced outwards, narrow and gray. He was smug, with a large arm wrapped tightly around the shoulder of the other person next to him, a girl. 

She was young. Vibrant. Tall, but not near as tall as the man. Slim. Wild hair and big blue eyes. She smiled brightly and leaned into the man lovingly, snaked around him and holding on as tight as a vice. 

She was Dakota, and the man looked all too familiar to the six men inside of the living room. He was the one who had been all over the news so long ago. In all of the newspapers and in the gossip of the town. His face was even on a billboard at one point, in a mugshot that read "WANTED" in big red letters with his name right below it (although he looked way happier and a little less intimidating in the picture beside Dak.)

Tobias Dayley. 

"No fucking way," Jack whispered to himself, the look on his face gauging with Gavin's quickly. He instantly spun around to Dak, and she was taken aback by the amount of pure exhilaration clouding around him. 

"You're his daughter! I mean, we knew that there was a chance, but you really are!" He chirped, his usual low voice picking up a few octaves. 

Dakota didn't know what to say. She was silent while watching these men once again turn completely human and go crazy over the fact that she was the offspring of Tobias. These professional men were freaking out, high fiving one another and laughing and talking about how they "never doubted it for a second," and she didn't understand how to handle it. 

First they came here, maybe to kill her, who knew? And now they were all over the place, well mainly three of them, while the other three seemed about as silent as they could be, and again, she didn't know what was wrong with those ones either.

Still unsure of what really to say, Dakota tried her hardest to keep a straight and confident face when replying to the outburst.

"I don't understand-"

"You don't understand how amazing that is?!" Gavin interrupted the woman, flailing his arms around to point again at the picture that was above his head. "He was my hero!"

"What?"

"Yeah, he's the reason that I do what I do!" Ray stood next to his friend. "That guy was a legend and a total badass, and here we are, in the same room with someone that came from his genes!"

Dakota was staring at the two. She was beyond utterly confused, but even more so just surprised. She didn't think that it was such a big deal to these people. Her father was infamous, but she assumed that because she was his daughter that everyone looked at her like she wasn't good enough, like she wasn't able to live up to her father's name because she was a woman. 

The only person who had ever really geeked out like this over her family tree was some teenage kid that ran her credit card at a local convenient store, who wanted an autograph and just went on and on about, "I can't wait 'til my brother hears this because he's in prison right now" and so on. 

The rest of society didn't agree with her, they hated her guts, and some even mocked her. So she didn't understand what the big deal was to them.

Gavin was still talking by the time she was done thinking to herself, and she listened in to him.

"-and I even had a cut out piece of newspaper as a kid with his face on it that I taped in my room! Of course, my parents made me take it down because they didn't want me to indulge in criminal activity, but I never gave up, and look where I'm at now! All because of your father."

"Okay, look," the one she recognized as M cut in, stepping in between Dakota's line of vision that was on the British one. "I'm usually not a pussy, but I don't want you to kick my ass for the way I treated you the other night, so I'm just gonna say right here that I apologize, and I'm an asshole."

He seemed genuine and even sort of worried, to which she didn't know how to react yet again because she still didn't understand what the fuck was going on. She didn't even know how to address the situation because it was actually overwhelming.

The British guy was still yammering on to Santa and to the one next to him, telling stories of the ways he tried to be like Tobias as a kid, when he finally turned his attention towards Dakota. 

"What was he like? Was he a good dad? I bet he was a good dad. Bloody hell, I wish he could have been my dad!"

"Oh, dude, that would have been fucking awesome!"

"No wonder why you're so skilled, you must be just like him too!"

"Stop pestering her, she's gonna fucking kick your ass and you're gonna ruin one of our coolest opportunities ever!"

"Why are you so angry, Mi-coo?"

"Because you won't shut the hell up!"

"All of you, shut up!" Dakota yelled, silencing everybody that had been talking, which was everyone besides Geoff and mask guy. She had her fists balled up, and she was more tense than before. Her hands were turning white, and her head was aching from the conversations that were going on. She already couldn't process what was happening, and the talking made it worse.

"What does any of this have to do with you guys coming here?! You walk on into my home for God knows what, and then you just completely change course and start to apologize to me for again, God knows what! And what's the end game on that?! Why did you come here today?!"

"Because," Geoff stated nonchalantly, his hands clasped together as he made an attempt to move into the middle of the room. "Because we want you to join us. Be a part of the crew. Our newest member, if you will."

The living room grew dead silent. The only noise that suddenly dawned upon them was the booming sound of thunder outside, and a quick wave of downpour fell upon the house, splattering everywhere and being as noisy as possible. As they had started their conversation, the clouds had moved rather quickly onto the beach line, and the world outside was soaked in black and grey as the wind overtook the earth. 

The ocean was roaring with violent waves and the rain was equally malevolent, matching the darkened sky overhead that swirled with the darkest colors possible. Thunder and lightning cracked all around, always within seconds of the first strikes or claps. It was pretty bad outside, and somehow it wasn't even as bad as the inside atmosphere of the house. 

Geoff had stood there after Gavin idiotically took the floor, and as he listened to their tales and the way that they admired Tobias's work (much as he had when he first heard of Tobias, but he didn't want to admit it) and he realized something.

He realized that maybe he didn't just show up to get revenge or whatever he originally had planned for her. He didn't just spend two days finding her for nothing either, but he didn't do it for something. Because sometimes life doesn't work out like that. A person can just act impulsively and that's how it's supposed to be. One minute you're on one track, and the next, you're going in a different direction because that's how their life was planned to be.

And it was fate that brought Geoff, Ryan, Gavin, Jack, Ray, and Michael to Dakota's home. It wasn't him, it wasn't them, and it wasn't her.

It was life, and just because there was no reasoning behind it didn't mean it was for nothing. Geoff has stood there and accepted that he was the one who had to make something of the mission. And he thought that maybe if Dakota wasn't meant to be an enemy, then maybe she was meant to be an ally, to join forces with them. 

Once he came to himself with that conclusion, he took it upon himself to make the decision and invite the woman on board. And that was another impulsive move by him, but it definitely wasn't a bad one, as she certainly wasn't a bad person to add to their team.

Everyone was shocked to hear Geoff say such a thing, but Dakota took it to heart. She didn't expect it, and apparently that was all that these people had done to her. They used to element of surprise to their advantage more than she had at first, even if they didn't realize it, and it was taking a toll on her. 

How could he ask that of her? He had never seen any of her work, he only knew that she had successfully evaded them and that she was related to a dead outlaw. And of course, that couldn't have been his original plan. There was no way, she knew that much. It was probably as unexpected to him as it was to her to say the least. 

Dakota kept thinking over and over again what she was going to say. She wanted to say screw off and kick them out. She wanted to, but she couldn't. For some reason, she had a gut feeling that she had to agree, that there was no other way except to go with them. The feeling was strong too, and Dak always listened to her gut, no matter what it said. It was telling her that there was more waiting for her with these guys.

She couldn't put a finger on it, but she just somehow felt that the only way her life would progress for the better would be to accept his offer. 

Twelve pairs of eyes observed her carefully, waiting eagerly for a reply. They had no idea how she would react and were ready for anything, whether it meant a full on battle with her- which was the most dramatic outcome- or ready for her to say yes - which was the least dramatic but most surprising reply. 

Dakota, taking in a deep, inaudible breath, glanced upwards towards the man in the skeleton mask beside her. She gave him a thoughtful stare, remembering what it had been like when they first "met" and how intrigued she had been with him and the whole group of men. When she again found Geoff after a few silent minutes, her stomach twisted and her heart raced as she opened her mouth.

They all saw this, and the anticipation was abruptly eating away at them, making every single one of them nervous and anxious as her mouth formed one simple word.

"Okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than the others, and I'm sorry for that, but I had major writer's block and I was trying to get it out by this week. I'm terribly sorry if it's bad, but ah! We've got a new member of the Fake AH Crew (sort of)! I hope you guys enjoyed. It should start getting better and having a little more.. romance soon(; thank you guys!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I got extremely busy last week, but now I'm back, and maybe I'll post two this week, who knows?! But anyways, remember that feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks guys! <3

Dakota was nothing short of nervous by the time she was following six unfamiliar men through a long, white corridor on the top floor of a building she had always seen, but never paid really paid attention to. Their loud antics didn't help as ridiculous laughter and yelling echoed off of the tall, ceiling wall and plagued her ears, the occasional threat rolling off of the man who took the front, his face stern and rarely found looking backwards to make sure Dakota was still there.

On the drive over there, Dakota couldn't stop tapping on her steering wheel, or on her thigh as she made her way through the onslaught of rain that caused her car to rock a few times. By the time they got to "HQ" and parked in the large garage of the back, Dak contemplated on even getting out. 

She didn't know these people, she didn't know what to expect at all. It wasn't that she was scared, she knew that they weren't ballsy enough to pull anything on their "idol's" daughter.

It wasn't even the fact that they all were somehow moronic and intimidating in the same, which was a fatal combination.

It was honestly the sheer, fearful realization that she was _actually doing this_ and she had no idea what could come of being with these men and joining their crew. 

Dakota had no idea where her life was about to take her, and she abhorred not being able to even slightly predict and outcomes. What if she had made a mistake? What if Toshi had been wrong about these people and gave them more credit than they were worth? As she obscurely observed the British one, Gavin as she had remembered (and also as he had told her when she signed on to Geoff's offer, running up to her like a small child and shaking her hand vigorously and telling her how excited he was,) while he was thrown into a wall by the curly haired one, causing an uproar of laughter as the poor man knocked his head hard, she felt that maybe Toshi was perhaps wrong.

They were all too... human as she had noted before. Crews weren't meant to have any kind of living being quality to them. They were supposed to be hard, rugged, professional, and sure, in their down time, they could have a little bit of freedom, but these guys? It was like watching a movie, because only movies could depict a rag tag team of criminals that were somehow immortal in their line of work but completely foolish out of jobs. 

She had only been with one other crew before, one that her and her dad had picked up around the outside of San Andreas when she was about seventeen. They stayed with it for a few months before finding out it wasn't their cup of tea, leaving them to branch off and go as a duo again. But in the small amount of time she had been with them, she grew accustomed to the biases that society put on crews and the members in them: they were all tough as hell, focused at all times, well composed, and the only time they ever stopped for a break was after a successful job, and even then they immediately went right back to it.

The six men before her, horsing around and laughing so hard that they were toppling over one another, were nothing at all compared to that crew. And that's what made her nervous. The professionalism she was so strict to adhere herself to seemed to be thrown out of the window as they walker her along that lifeless corridor, and she didn't know how they were going to impress her afterwards. She wondered if there was a way she could turn back.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of walking, Dakota stopped abruptly when she realized that her fellow "acquaintances" had halted, piling one by one into a spacious room completely filled with windows except for the wall that possessed the entrance. Dak was the last to enter, and it took her a moment to comprehend that everything was silent as the men were sat down at a long, mahogany table, Geoff on the other end standing, waiting.

Dak reluctantly took a step to the chair placed like a cliché on the end opposite of Geoff, and as soon as she too sat, Geoff followed. 

Again, the teenage-like front was gone, replaced with a resilient amount of expertise. Dakota had to hold herself from laughing in confusion. 

"So, Dakota, before we can seal anything, I've got to lay down some rules. It's basic stuff, but I have to run through it. Everyone of these guys were sat down all the same just like this, so there's no exception for you," a voice at the other end of the table called, and Dakota eyed the man pleasantly.

She nodded in response, and Geoff continued. 

"First, I'm not gonna introduce you to all of these guys. You seem to know us a little, so that's your own responsibility to take care of if you wanna make friends, which is a good idea in all. Let me just tell you, if you don't get along here, you're not gonna do well, and that's not good for any of us. We're a team effort here. These motherfuckers are my family, and the goal is for you to become a part of that. If you don't get in on that, then don't expect any of us to choose you over one of these guys in this room. Have you got that?"

Dakota again nodded, her eyes landing on each one of the men, then back to Geoff. "Yeah. I get it."

Geoff forced a small smirk, then drummed on the table with his hands. "Alright! On to the next part, which I guess you could say is our code of conduct."

"Jesus, I feel like I'm in school again."

There was a small moment of chuckles, then it quickly fell back to the anticipation and stillness that it was seconds before. Even the leader of the Fake AH Crew was phased partly, but his face returned faster than any of theirs.

"Basically, the overall goal here is success, and that means as a team and as an individual, emphasis on both, but more of the team aspect. I'll remind you again for my own sake that if you aren't a team player, then you sit the bench. It'll cause nothing but trouble for us and we're not about that. I won't hesitate to reconsider your position here. Other than that, you'll be assigned your own missions or jobs or whatever it is, whether that's with another member or not. This is that individual success I was talking about. Everyone is expected to complete the assignments up to date, and failure to complete it within the timespan or at all is how I assess your time with us and your worth. If your worth is out of place, then surprise, surprise! I'll do what I see fit with you, even if it means cutting you loose."

"So, it's an evaluation basically?"

"No, not entirely," Geoff said with a rub of his chin, trying to think of how to explain it to her without confusing the daylights out of her, because apparently he always over explained things and was always criticized for it. Jack took his place in an attempt to sweep up his words and clean them.

"Really it's just a responsibility in part of being a member, and what he's trying to say is that based on how well or how bad you or your team perform will result in an assessment on each individual person who was involved. It just keeps us in check with ourselves, and it also helps Geoff divide people into certain categories for jobs depending on who does what best. It can change around, but it's usually pretty consistent."

Dakota actually had to admit that that was pretty smart. 

"Okay. I think I understand how that works now. So, individual assignments, what can I expect?"

"Assignments can range from sealing a deal to a specific setup for a score or it can even be a smuggling act. We rarely get those, but we're in contact with a lot of gangs around the state and sometimes they need us to help carry out something," Geoff replied, taking back his authoritative position. 

Dakota's face lit up upon the word score. She hadn't robbed much of anything in the past few years. In fact, she had been in retirement up until the death of her father a few months before. It was then that, much like her grief stricken dad when her mom passed, she decided to take up the lifestyle again because she couldn't escape it. Of course, she had been upset, but it was great to reconnect with herself and the reason that she was even alive.

So for her to hear the word "score," as in an actual heist, she was all for it, even completely surprising the men sitting at the table as they watched Dakota turn into the wild, tense person that she was the night that they first met. 

"What kind of scores are we talking about? Is there anything planned as of right now?"

"Uh... yeah, actually," Geoff sounded a little doubtful of himself, trying to even remember if he had been working on something. Indeed he had, but it wasn't something he had told the guys about yet. It was just an idea that he had been toying with when he had one day been doing recon for the Triad job, and he had passed a place that looked pretty prominent, good enough for a more than decent pay.

"It's a little thing I've been thinking about for a while now. But we'll talk about that later. We need to get this over with and get you set up," the tattooed man continued, clearing his throat while trying to avoid the sudden stares haunting him from the abrupt news. 

"There's more?" Ray groaned, earning a stare from Geoff, which made the man start to explain himself. "I'm hungry! We haven't eaten since we got up to find her, and now she's here, and yet you still haven't gone out to get us food like you said you would if we found her!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms over his chest and slumping in his chair.

Geoff, clearly agitated by the expression he wore, ignored the outburst and continued on, leaning onto his elbows over the wood and trying his best to conceal himself to restart the conversation with Dakota. She watched him with a blankness to her, blinking a few times as though he weren't real and she was trying to wake herself up from some kind of hazy dream. 

"If you're gonna be an addition to our team, you need to know that we expect a lot from every one of ourselves."

 _It didn't seem like that when you were trying to control your friends from knocking each other into a wall earlier,_ Dakota thought to herself.

"And you need to know that we don't take this lightly. What you see here, no matter how dim-witted we appear, we take care of each other. Like I said, we're a family, and we're not gonna let anyone jeopardize our lives for anything. If you're not a part of that right now because I know you're all about the whole 'lone wolf' thing, then we can just let that be that and we can go our separate ways right now."

Dakota took no time in looking over the men sitting at the table. They were doing the same, staring at her with a deep curiosity and intent that she swore that their eyes could pop out. She thought it over with every glance she took at each man, starting with Santa and ending with mask guy. 

She could walk away right then. Just go and never come back and not have to worry about what would happen later on down the road. She wouldn't have to worry about the inevitable and she could just return to her own thing and stay that way forever. 

But something was holding her back from going through with that. Her stomach was turning and it was yelling at her in sync with her brain that she had to go through with the current offer that was laid out. Dakota had an underlying feeling that for some reason, she was meant to be with these people. With the one that seemed too innocent to be a criminal and looked like he could be on a Christmas card, with the one beside him who had yelled at literally every person in that room, with the one who probably had a high IQ, but was not at all common sense smart. With the one who looked like he had walked straight out of a magazine that advertised tattoos and appealed to teenage, punk rock boys. With the one who slumped in his chair and looked like he should be out buying the latest game console. And finally, with the one that had piercing looks and had haunted her every since she had came face to mask with him.

She didn't know how to describe it, but it felt like predestination. A match made before any of their times that they couldn't control. And who was she to get in the way of that? 

There was no way out of it.

"I'm in," she finally replied, earning a loud and giddy noise from Gavin. 

"Bloody Hell, I can't stop shaking form excitement! This is a milestone in our career, boys!" He cheered, standing up and slapping the person nearest him on the back. "This is great!"

"Good!" Michael yelled, immediately leaving his chair and stretching. "I'm totally with Ray. I'm really fucking hungry too, especially when I get promised food and don't get any!"

Geoff grumbled angrily in response and too exited his seat with, the rest of the men taking that as their cue to do the same, and Dakota waited until all of them were standing before she got up.

"I don't know how I haven't killed all of you yet," the man mumbled under his breath, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a lanyard that had car keys and what seemed to look like house keys. He fumbled with them lazily, and sometimes his fingers would clasp onto one, but then he'd study it and grunt in dissatisfaction after seconds of inspecting it. Finally at some point he grabbed one and took it off of to ring and as he put the lanyard back, he threw the key at Dakota. She quickly caught it with amazing reflexes, the kind that a person picks up from straight instinct, and she too inspected the key.

"What's this?"

"That," Geoff replied, drawing out the syllable a little while striding towards the door, "is your apartment."

"My... my apartment?" Dakota stuttered, turning the key over in her hand as if in a slight trance, and she tried to wait it out to see if he was somehow joking.

"Why do you seem so surprised?"

"Well, I mean I have a place. What is this for?"

"We all have a place somewhere else!" She heard a British accent chirp. "But what do you think this building is? Just a tower full or _conference rooms_?"

"It's as good a guess as any considering that I've never been in here before."

Geoff reclaimed the conversation, leading everyone out of the room and closing the door once they all stepped into the hall. "The other floors here are our apartments. We stay here for anything, but really it's just when we're in the process of organizing and planning something. It's here for whatever and whenever though, so go fucking crazy, I don't care."

He snapped his fingers towards the man in the back of the group. "Hey, mask boy! Show Dak to her apartment. You're finally getting a floor buddy!"

"Oh, yeah, but you never will, huh, Geoff?" Ray again complained as if he were a dissatisfied teenager. 

"Do you want a free goddamn meal or not?"

There was a moment of silence, then a quick and simple, "Point taken."

As if the conversation in the other room had not even occurred, Geoff, Jack, Ray, Gavin, and Michael all trudged off, disappearing down the hallway to the elevator all while bickering and arguing about where to go to eat and _"Gavin, if you don't stop pestering me, I swear to God I will lock you in the car while we go inside to eat and you won't get anything!"_

All that was left was Dakota and Ryan, standing in an almost uncomfortable stillness, and to Dak, she didn't even know this guy's name.

She remembered briefly that this was the man that she had been so involved in after their first ever meet up, and it almost excited her and scared her that they were alone together, nonetheless sharing a whole floor level. Dakota was eager to know more, to know his name, and even as they stood so silently, she was caught up in his superficial mysteriousness. 

Ryan too was anxious. He felt weirdly small next to her although he was a good head above her height of 5"7, and his throat felt constricted, which he didn't understand why either were affecting him the way that it was. 

He had never been scared to talk to women, quite the opposite in reality. A wink and a few words of smooth talk, sprinkled with dashes of charm and humor, and he could womanize anyone in a club full of pretty faces that really had no name or meaning to him at all. In fact, they had just been flings, besides the few he would try to make a relationship out of, but those never worked out.

Ryan was a ladies' man and there was no doubt to it. But for some reason, he just couldn't be himself as they blankly observed one another, but on the other hand, he didn't even know her, so why was he thinking of past relationships and making it more difficult for himself?

After what seemed like an eternity, Ryan started to make a step towards Dakota, and although she felt compelled to move away, the woman stood her ground firmly, yet it wasn't a primitive instinct. It was something she couldn't entirely describe, but she forgot it as the masked man offered out a hand to her in a gentle manner.

She replied by grabbing it and giving it a shake. Ryan laughed. 

"What's so funny?" Dakota questioned nearly bitterly, something close to a glare residing on her face.

Ryan let go of her hand, still chuckling a boyish chuckle, and pointed at the key in her other hand. "I was gonna ask for that, but you beat me to it before I could."

There was an instantaneous amount of natural red blush that spread across the Dayley woman's face, and she became discordant.

"Oh, uh, I didn't know... Uhm, uh, here," she could barely sputter out, handing the man the key.

"No, no! It's okay! I didn't mean to embarrass you like that. I mean, I really didn't specify anyways."

Dakota still felt hot in the face, but she tried her best to regain her composure, and as soon as she did, the man made his way down the hall towards the elevator the others had vanished in moments before. Dakota followed slightly behind, making sure that he wouldn't be able to notice the remaining blood that had rushed to her cheeks.

Ryan strode with his long legs, and she surprisingly kept up with him. He wasn't used to someone who could walk as fast as he usually did. The guys would complain and yell at him because no matter where it was, he would walk as if he were in a rush, and no one understood that he physically couldn't stop himself because he was graced with the gift of long limbs.

They both reached the elevator, and he pressed a button that wore a faded down arrow. Dakota stopped at his side, a little less jagged now, and they awaited for the large double doors to open to them.

"I was surprised that you even considered joining us," Ryan stated, his eyes trailing to her for a brief moment before moving his gaze back to the metal doors. 

"And why's that?" She asked.

"I don't know. Didn't think you wanted to run around with a bunch of men who play dress up with masks and then act like none of us even know that the word 'education' exists."

This caused Dakota to smile, and she felt her shell break from earlier. 

"If you haven't noticed, that's most of the people in this town, criminal or not. There's not really much of a variety to pick from."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. But then again, I don't think that other people like to play hot potato with a live grenade in their free time, so at least we've got that going for us, right?"

Ryan noticed as the doors opened up that Dakota had a curious and somewhat amazed expression upon her lips and eyebrows, and she stood slack as he stepped in.

"Please tell me you're joking," Dak said, moving inside of the large box before it could cage her out. Ryan punched a number on the button grid, and he couldn't suppress the grin forming behind his mask.

"Unfortunately, I'm not. Rethinking your decision?"

"You know, even though I completely one hundred percent believe that you're telling the truth, I can't say that it makes me want to leave."

"If you say so. That was your chance right there for an out, so speak now or forever be trapped inside of a world that revolves around six psychotic yet dysfunctional men," he teased, and it earned a snicker from beside him.

"Sorry, but you can't get rid of me that easy, masky."

Their ride came to a smooth halt, and the doors opened swiftly, letting the two people out and for Ryan to take charge in front of them again. Dakota moved in his past footsteps, searching around the floor. 

It was pretty spacious, more spacious than the white and low hallway that they were just in. The ceiling was deceivingly higher and she felt like she could actually breathe underneath it. The color scheme set the tone of the hallway, a kind of homely and strangely inviting tone as the walls were bathed in a shade of green that was bright enough, but it didn't hurt her eyes like lime green did. Below her boots, the floor was polished wood, and it made a soft thud every time she took a step.

To her left was a large glass window that led out into the terrible storm, with its greys and blacks and cracks of lightning that would appear, only to be pursued by a mild thundering noise. Against the window that took up the whole left side of the floor, almost like it replaced the wall that was supposed to be there, the pounding rain was prominent as it knocked into the glass, producing loud clacks and clicks that oddly enough satisfied Dakota's ears. 

She stayed behind her current leader, eyes wandering around, and in the middle of the ever long hall, he stopped at two wooden doors relatively close to each other. When he did, he gripped the backside of his mask, pulling it off and sighing immediately afterwards with a certain amount of content resonating in his low grumble. 

Dakota stood dead in her tracks. This man did not look like she had imagined. He had a strong jaw, yet it contradicted with his slight baby face. Along the bottom of his face from his ear down to the beginning of his neck, he had stubble that receded between his nose and lips and where a beard would usually be. The man's hair was longish, dirty blond and completely free to itself, yet even as it had just came out of a mask, it landed perfectly atop his head, only a few strands standing up on end from the friction. 

He was undeniably handsome, with pinkish lips pushed together as he studied the key in his hand that he didn't have the mask in, and Dak was again in another trance that she couldn't quite explain. 

She had not imagined him to look like so rugged and so... _wonderful_. From the way Toshi had described him, he was supposed to be a real maniac. Crazy and impossible to stop. His eyes had been haunting her and she had thought up so many different ways that those blue oceans could have been paired with different faces, how malevolent and how dark he was supposed to have been! But she was wrong (she had to stop assuming things about these people) and it almost made her that much more infatuated. 

"Wow," she finally stated in an underlying tone full of awe that she tried to conceal, "I had no idea that you actually had a face, masky."

Ryan turned slightly, looking at the mask for a moment, then holding it up to his real face.

"What this? Can't you tell? This is a mask too. I'm so gross that I have to wear two. That one just gets hot."

Dakota genuinely laughed at his statement, and she put a hand over her mouth to mute herself. "Oh, yeah, I totally can see it from here. Thank God that's not your actual appearance either, cause it's hideous!"

Ryan too laughed genuinely, thinking to himself that his humor had finally kicked in and maybe he wasn't so anxious with her after all. His words were completely natural, even the whole time that they were bantering to each other in the elevator. 

He had never had a woman do that with him, allow him to tease her like he had been and even fling it back, even if it were just tiny. As they both got a hold of themselves, he also thought that he could get used to talks like that.

"You know, I never got your name," she said, the laugh that had overtaken her still lingering a little bit. 

Ryan furrowed his brows curiously. "I thought you knew all of our names already."

"Toshi didn't remember yours when he was telling me. The most I know is that is starts with an R, or least I assume that because if I recall correctly, your teammate called you 'R2'," she replied as a memory of the night she had invaded the David building flashed across her mind quickly. 

"Well, you'd be right. I'm Ryan," Ryan inserted the key into the door on the left, then held out his hand to the woman. She gave it a glance, then looked directly into his eyes, a glint of light hitting them just perfectly that he noticed all too well. 

"Is this the part where I can actually shake your hand and you won't make fun of me after?"

They both reciprocated a smile at the same time, and he nodded. 

She took his hand. "Dakota. It's a pleasure to finally meet you for real, Ryan."

"I can say the same."

After their official meeting, Ryan returned to the door, and he opened it for her, motioning for her to be the first to walk in. She sarcastically curtsied, then entered the apartment, again letting herself look over it, her approval was glowing from the expression she wore so adamantly. Ryan too stepped in, not taking any time to observe as he knew what this apartment looked like already: just like the rest of theirs. 

A glass window that took up the whole other wall opposite them, fireplace and TV above it, coffee table with a couch that was actually green like his, large kitchen area with granite countertop, and steps beside the kitchen that led into the master bedroom and master bathroom. The walls were white, and the floor was the same as the hallway. It looked how a luxury apartment should: expensive and extravagant. 

"Welcome to your certified Fake AH Crew apartment, Dakota Dayley, where everything can be broken in a matter of seconds when any of our members first walk in."

Dakota walked up to the couch, throwing herself down onto the cushions and she let out a slight sigh into the couch that was muffled to the other person in the room. She turned over onto her back, letting her legs dangle over the sidearm while intertwining them together. She closed her eyelids for a brief second, opening them again to find her vision directed at the ceiling.

"I mean, I have some pretty good places, but this feels more like home than any of them for some reason," Dak noted aloud. Ryan came closer, leaning over the back of the couch, and suddenly his head popped into her line of sight too. 

"It's probably just because you know that you won't have to live alone anymore. If you haven't noticed, it's kind of depressing to be by yourself all the time. I'm surprised you haven't gone insane and turned into a cat lady," his voice was mocking her, and she rolled her eyes playfully at him.

"So you guys really do stay here a lot then?"

Ryan shrugged for no reason in general, it was just appropriate to him at the time. "Eh, I guess. Maybe like sixty percent of the time we do. It just depends, really. Geoff's married, and the guys all have a girlfriend that keep them pretty busy when we're not heisting, but sometimes the girls come to live with them here."

Dakota sat up. "They know and don't care about their lifestyle? That's impressive. I can't keep a guy wrangled for more than a week when they find out what I do. And more importantly, you say that as if you don't have someone to waste your time on."

"Well, I don't. I guess you could say we're kind of alike. It just doesn't work out for me."

Abruptly, Ryan's jean pocket rang loudly, and he immediately took out his rather large smart phone, sliding his thumb across the screen and he began to inspect whatever alerted on his device. Dakota sat for a moment, thinking about the fact that he was actually single until she stopped herself because she thought it was weird to imagine what his love life was like, and finally he stowed it away.

"Looks like the guys are back. The storm kind of threw them off, so they went into a fast food restaurant and apparently it's pretty chaotic, but," he drew out the words on the last syllable, "they got us some stuff to eat too. Wanna head into the lobby? You can officially meet everyone there."

"Do I really have a choice, Ryan?"

"Not really."

"Then let's go."

With that, the two of them took off to the elevator, Ryan throwing her the key to her new apartment, and they chatted it up. Dakota would come to find that she really enjoyed talking with him. He was different than what she expected, being handsome and funny and seeming like a pretty normal guy, or at least normal for their group. He still made her feel the way that she had the night that they so fatefully broke into the same place at the same time, where she felt intrigued in him and wanted to get deeper into his life. Whether that was some kind of meaningful intention, she didn't know. That was beyond her and she would just have to wait to see. Either way, she was taken with him like she had been before, even more so at that point.

In the lobby, all seven people, six men and one woman, laughed and talked about whatever they could and about whatever they wanted. Gavin of course asked Dakota multiple times about her father, to which she gladly chose to talk about because it had been a long time since she had shared stories about him. She missed being around people. After Tobias passed, she was heartbroken, and it caused her to shut down, going into the catatonic state that she had caught herself up in, the one where she once again became a criminal and decided to be a mercenary for hire. 

For the past few months, she had even forgot what it was like to connect with people genuinely, but they made her remember. They sat, getting to know Dak, just barely scratching the surface for now, while stuffing their mouths with food that probably wasn't very healthy, but as Geoff explained it, he didn't really care because it was a delicacy that he refused to live without, rising an agreeing roar from everyone in the room. 

The crew seemed to get along with her pretty well, and she was ecstatic about it. Just that morning she had been ready to kill them all if they so dared to pull a move on her, but she least expected that their meeting was going to venture off course and lead to sitting in a room surrounded by her used-to-be enemies, letting time pass as a storm kept them inside of their apartment building/HQ. 

No matter how she looked at it, she couldn't deny it to anyone, even herself, that her decision to join forces with the Fake AH Crew was ultimately one of her best choices she ever made, even it she concluded that in just a few hours time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed that last chapter! Ryan and Dak finally got to talk, and a lot of character progression by Ryan! Anyways, here's another one! Enjoy and please please please leave feedback!

After letting her have a few days to do whatever she wanted to her apartment, Geoff finally decided on sending Dakota out on a job where she could represent the crew and allow Geoff to further validate her skills, not just solely basing his decision on her family tree and the things that she had told them. Although he didn't at all doubt her, he wanted to make sure that he could assess her himself, and that he could get a feel for her worth. He thought of it like an initiation, just way more extreme.

It took him the night before to figure out just what he wanted her to do. He didn't want to start her off with something that she wasn't ready for, even though he did think to himself that she probably was more prepared for anything her threw her way than he was. But either way, it kept Geoff up until about two in the morning, pacing around the planning room and looking at all kinds of things that he had received in the past weeks that he thought was perfect for her first assignment. 

He didn't want anything to be too easy, but he didn't want anything to be too hard either. He paced and paced and rummaged and rummaged through papers and plans and threw things out of the window that he didn't see fit at all. Until he finally just stuck with one of the ideas he had toyed with in the early stages of planning Dakota's job. 

He had called her up to the planning room the day after, ready to lay everything out on the table and assign her the respective role that he had set for her. After an hour of talking and further telling her his expectations, Dakota was ready to go as she was well aware of what she had to do.

It wasn't hard at all, if anything on the difficulty range it was probably less than a three out of ten. All she had to do was go to a deal at a designated location, scope out and possibly negotiate with a source- if reliable and trustworthy enough- about working together on a certain gun smuggling job that would pay big bucks, and then come back with the news of what went down. Dakota was a good choice for the job all in all because her convincing and smooth talk fit what she needed to do, and Geoff didn't have to leave and risk anything that could jeopardize his life, thus affecting the future of his crew. Accompanying her would be Gavin, and with him there (although Geoff stressed to her how much of an idiot he could be and that she needed to do all the talking, not him) it would be virtually easy.

The two even sat talking about a mutual friend that they both had, and they don't quite remember how it got on that subject, but either way, they both knew a man by the name of Burnie Burns.

Geoff was surprised at this information, asking her how the hell she knew him, and she replied that she had met him years ago before her and her father retired together when they were still on the run. The father and daughter duo were returning to Los Santos, riskily might she add, and upon their short return to inspect the city, that's where they met Burnie.

He used to run with a crew of his own, but when they all split up, Burnie ended up joining the FIB as a crooked agent, willing to help fiends that were in need of it all while still playing the part of the hero. It was a win/win for both sides, and it was everything the man ever wanted, having fame and still being able to stay criminally active, just in a different aspect. 

When Tobias and Dakota entered the city, they immediately gained the attention of the FIB, and it was Burnie who contacted them and helped them out by doing whatever it was he did to draw the attention off of them. Ever since then, he became a family friend, and especially after Tobias died, Burnie turned out to be a huge factor in Dak's life. She looked at him as family, and apparently, so did Geoff.

They noted how small the world really was and ended on that, Dakota leaving for her newly appointed job to frame her spot in the crew and Geoff off to find Jack to start working on the score he mentioned that he was thinking about.

So now, Dakota and Gavin were together in a vehicle, Dak driving and Gav sitting patiently in the passenger seat, going to the location that he had punched into the GPS minutes earlier. The two had worked up a fair amount of small talk, getting to know one another on a personal level, and Dakota was getting in an easy read on him pretty quickly. 

She could tell that he was definitely not the brightest one in the bunch, but he still seemed to be intelligent. He was also proving to already be a handful, but Dak decided that he wasn't so bad. He was just curious. 

He listened well to her and was fully into what she had to say, even asking questions about it and relating to her with all kinds of stories and opinions of his own that she would either nod to or agree with. She liked him. They were getting along respectively, and the woman knew that they were going to grow close over a relatively short period of time.

As the car merged into the right lane and turned onto a street going underneath an overpass, heading out towards the industrial and lower class side of town, the people inside were chatting casually about a woman they saw on the sidewalk.

"Did you not see her hair?!" Gavin laughed to himself, throwing his hands into the air while looking back into the mirror on his side to try and still see the woman. "She looked like a yak!"

"I wasn't paying attention to that! I was paying more attention to her bright pink thong sticking out of those stained, purple yoga pants! I swear that I saw ass-sweat!" Dakota too couldn't hold back a laugh as she turned onto the next street ahead of her, continuing straight.

"Ass-sweat?! Oh my God, that makes me want to vomit!" He replied, fake gagging for emphasis, causing Dakota to squint her face.

"Ew, don't do that! You're gonna make me sick!"

"Then don't talk about ass-sweat!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" She said with a final snigger. 

There was a slight quiet between the two after their fits died down, and the radio was the only thing making any kind of sound, with Don Johnson singing something about a heartbeat, but neither of them heard it because they weren't really listening to the noise. It didn't take long for Gavin to face the woman, laying his back onto the car door and draping an arm lazily over the front console. She didn't make an attempt to glance at him for she knew that he was willing to strike up another endearing conversation, and although she didn't have any peace to herself for the time that the car ride started, she didn't mind it either. She rather wanted him to want to talk to her than him not feel comfortable around her, thus making her uncomfortable too.

"What do you think so far?" his voice registered in her ears.

"About you guys?" she asked.

"Yeah, I mean, is it what you hoped for?"

Dakota paused for a moment. "Why does that really matter? I mean, I didn't really hope for anything. It was more of an expectation, but other than finding out that you're all a bunch of morons out of the job, it's really what I expected."

"Really?"

His tone sounded clearly surprised, and it confused her.

"Yeah... Is there something else you want me to say?"

Gavin didn't reply instantly because he was too busy thinking. What did he want her to say? He didn't think that asking her what she thought would take such a left turn into the dead end that they were in now. It almost made him forget why he asked in the first place, and if he forgot that, then he would be screwed, because Gavin was never much for finishing even the most collected of his thoughts.

"Uh... no. I just wanted to know if you were satisfied I guess."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you becoming a member was just really sudden. None of us knew it was gonna happen. I honestly think it was just Geoff trying to play himself off, but as soon as he said it, I thought you'd immediately turn him down," he admitted blatantly, readjusting himself in his seat to cross one of his legs over his knee. "I guess my point is that I'm really glad you didn't."

Dakota turned into an empty parking lot and parked horizontally in one of the parking spaces, taking up three rather than one like the law suggested, but on the part of town that they were on, it really didn't matter. She placed the car in park and leaned back into the resistant cushions of the vehicle, kneading her hands together, and started to play with her thumbs.

"I think I'm glad about it too. Trust me, I was hesitant, but something was telling me I had to accept. I can't describe it. All I know is I think it was a good decision, and I'm not gonna back out on it, especially this soon," she stated, letting her head fall to face Gavin who had a boyish glow to him after hearing her talk. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah," Gavin nodded. 

The two went back to a different conversation, still talking about Yak Girl that they saw earlier, or about what they were gonna do when they got back to HQ. The Brit told her stories of past heists and some of the funny things that they did, bringing up hot potato, to which Dakota replied with, "So you guys really did that and Ryan wasn't bullshitting me?!"

Not too long after they started to converse, another car pulled up beside them, a stout man with a jumpsuit and his tall associate getting out swiftly while eyeing the two's car intently. Dakota immediately stopped telling her tale and opened her door, Gavin following suit, and they approached the other duo professionally (which came as a surprise to Dak because she had no idea that Gavin could go from babbling buffoon to hardass in an estimated time of three seconds.)

The beer-bellied, jumpsuit man took a small step forward as Gav and Dak halted slowly, Dak leading with Gav just barely behind her position, and he relayed a close-lipped smile that made both parties crawl. He looked as if he hadn't shaved in a few weeks, his stubble growing out longer than just any old five 'o clock shadow, and the smell of his body rang through the air, matching the notion that he wasn't hygienic. Dakota didn't move a muscle when he held out an overly large hand, laced with black hair, and motioned towards her.

"You are the one I'm supposed to meet, no?" A heavy Russian accent nearly coated Dakota in his musky breath, and she made no hesitation to reply. 

"Yes, we are. And by that, I assume that you're Kruschek."

"I am indeed. But you may call me Artyom."

Artyom turned his palm upwards, and knowing exactly what he wanted, Dakota rested her hand lightly on his as he bent down to kiss it. When he lingered a little too long, she cleared her throat and produced a freshly fake and cheesy smile.

"Artyom, as charmed as I am, please, let's get down to what we came for."

"Of course, of course!" The Russian exclaimed, giving her a wink as he returned to his original stance, and he looked over his shoulder to his associate. "This warehouse behind us is a property of mine."

"Perfect," the Dayley woman forced out with her face still contorted into a grin, and she turned towards Gavin now, who seemed just as disgusted and weirded out by the other man basically gloating in front of him. "Let's follow Mr. Kruschek-"

"Please! Artyom!"

Dakota rolled her eyes, careful to make sure that only her partner could see her, before continuing on with her sentence, changing the man's name to what he requested so desperately. "Let's follow _Artyom_ and see what we can work out."

-

Everyone back at HQ was eagerly anticipating Dakota and Gavin's return.

They were set up in the lobby, shooting pool and lounging around, all talking and drawing up outcomes of what went down with the two missing persons.

They should have been back already according to Geoff, who said that after debriefing Dakota, she left immediately to take on her task. This worried Geoff, and when he got worried about something that he shouldn't have to worry about, he also got unbelievably irritable. 

"Fucking shit!" Ray heard the tattooed man curse as it echoed throughout the entire lobby, and from his peripheral, he could see his friend and esteemed leader pacing in the dim lighting that radiated off of them all from the various shaded lamps scattered around the floor.

Personally, Ray liked the way the lobby looked. The lighting, the dark brown brick walls with wood panels underlining them, and the cold, stone floor. It reminded him of a high end sports bar, and if they slapped a sign outside and started to charge, it well could have been. In all fact, he actually suggested the wall lamps have the cliché green shades.

"Geoff, you gotta calm down," he called out nonchalantly, sprawled out in one of the deeply padded, red leather chairs while flipping through the channels of the TV adjacent him on the wall. "I'm sure you're overreacting."

Geoff didn't stop, he couldn't stop. It wasn't physically plausible to his body. He felt hot in his face and his shirt seemed to fit too tight around his neck.

"They should've been back!" he flailed again while disregarding the statement made towards him. He maliciously searched the bright screen of his phone, which read "7:15," and just by seeing that, his legs walked faster as he made a loud type of distress noise, causing virtually _everyone_ in the room to close their eyes and sigh.

Ray exited his chair, rolling off of it and catching himself before hitting the floor, and he made his way over to the three men gathered around the pool table. He stopped beside Ryan, who stood propping himself up by the elbow on a pool stick with one leg crossed over the other, and together they watched the current match between Jack and Michael. Jack was shooting, and he sunk his second to last solid, earning a curse from his opponent. 

"Didn't he literally just tell us he wasn't concerned about Dakota and Gavin screwing up like five minutes ago?" Ray asked, his eyes behind his glasses studying Jack while he bent over the table, shooting and knocking into the last solid ball so close to a corner, but it barely missed and rolled directly in front of the pocket.

"Hey," Michael interjected, positioning himself over the last two striped balls he had to sink. "Give him some credit; it was at least ten minutes ago."

The ball was hit and rolled steadily into a middle pocket, making a slight thug followed by a clack.

"Well, you know Geoff," Jack commented, instantly eliciting a "Dammit!" when the next striped ball fell in, leaving only his green solid and the eight.

Ryan shrugged. "If I were him, I wouldn't be so worried. Dakota's liable, and so is Gavin."

Michael missed his shot at the eight, and quickly threw back, "Yeah, I bet you think so."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means, lover boy."

"Fuck you, Michael."

The conversation was interrupted rather abruptly by the slam of an opening door, a faint "WHERE THE HELL-" that cut off and became muffled tot he inside of the building coming after. Giving one another a confused glance, the four men bolted away from the table and ran to the lobby doors, pushing them open and fumbling over each other to get outside.

Geoff was there, making a beeline towards the SUV that possessed two bodies that were exiting it's interior. He looked ultimately beyond the threshold of pissed compared to the very calm and collected man and woman in front of him. Ryan, Ray, Michael, and Jack stayed behind the scene, preparing for whatever was about to unfold curiously.

"Where have you two been?! You were supposed to come back hours ago!"

Dakota put her hands up in self defense as Geoff came at her and Gav, who was wide-eyed and reduced to nothing at the sight of his boss being so worked up. "Whoa, whoa, Geoff! Hold on just a minute!"

He paused and glared at her.

"You're telling me to hold on?!"

"Yes, Jesus, just stop for one whole minute and I will tell you exactly why we're late, okay?" Dak said, her hands still up to keep the peace and not poke the bear any further. She indeed did have an explanation for her lateness, and it would be something that he definitely wanted to hear.

After going inside with Artyom and his assistant, they started to talk business from then on, Artyom giving her the details of the exact transaction that he wanted done and how he wanted it done. Dakota had listened intently, looking for any sign of faulty advertising or untrustworthiness, and when the man didn't falter, she remembered the factors that Geoff had debriefed her on specifically, such as: if the transaction took them out of state, then avoid it; if the dealer tried to make it totally outrageous and make it complicated enough that it could harm his crew, then avoid it; and last but not least, if he tried to provide stipulations, then avoid it.

Artyom was very serious about the deal, he wanted it done professionally and he wanted it done cautiously not to create attention, and that was the whole reason he wanted to deal with a new source that he had never worked with before. He did try to make a bunch of crazy rules that Dak wasn't in to, and it caused the meeting to go a little longer than planned, because she had to persuade the man to be more lenient than he was originally intending.

At first, the Russian was very persistent to keep to his own plan, but after she decided to use the fact that his eyes were always trailing her body to her advantage, and not to mention the silver tongue that she was blessed with from both of her parents, it wasn't too hard to convince Artyom to let up- he even offered a larger cut. 

Once Geoff heard this information, he remained wordless and motionless for minutes on end, creating an unnerving silence in the cool breeze of the night that left the other six people to themselves, avoiding eye contact as it was already awkward enough. The tension broke, however, when a high pitched, almost wheezing laugh blew right into their ears, causing them all to search the area with their eyes until they landed on Geoff, doubled over with his hands glued to his knees, and he was shaking uncontrollably. 

Another loud and high pitched noise occurred, this time right behind Dak, and it was Gavin, joining in on the contagious laughter, until their whole group turned into a fit of giggles and chuckles that all differed from each other, but were equally as entertaining.

"You, you mean to tell me," Geoff started, pushing off of his knees and letting his laughter puncture through his words, "that the very first job you ever do for us, you make it easier and make the pay a hell of a lot more than it was, all because you lead the guy on?! That's fucking incredible!"

"I-I didn't lead him on," Dakota implored, then mumbled, "per say..."

Geoff reached over to her and clasped a hand onto her shoulder. "I don't give a shit what you call it, that shit's funny! You know what? I knew I could trust you."

He then wrapped his full arm around her and pulled her in close, turning to all of his men that were settling back down, and he raised his free hand up in the air while he shook Dakota slightly. She relaxed and awkwardly smiled, letting him rake her around like a rag doll, having to steady herself when he finished.

"Gents, lads, you know what this means!" he exclaimed excitedly. The others all began to talk amongst themselves just as enthusiastic as Geoff was, causing even more confusion to unleash inside of Dakota. She utterly had no clue what to say as these men practically went crazy, whooping and hollering and screaming things that she couldn't comprehend because they all jumbled together.

"Wait, what the hell is going on?!" Dakota yelled as Geoff left her and stepped over to the men in the cluster. 

He looked behind himself, a smirk resting smugly on his face, and he answered as if she ought to know. "You! You're what's going on! You're officially in after successfully completing your first job as a crew member, and now, on this lovely Saturday night in downtown Los Santos, we're going to take you to a bar, get you drunk as fuck, and pretty much just fucking praise you the whole night while we kill ourselves with alcohol poisoning! It's initiation night, Dak, so get ready!"

Before she could further question them and figure out _what the fuck was actually going on_ , Geoff hurried inside for God knew what, Michael, Gavin, Jack, and Ray following suit as quick as they could, yet again leaving Dakota and Ryan to themselves, except she was dumbfounded beyond belief, and he was just slightly amused at the way that she couldn't keep her jaw closed.

Long after the loudness ceased, Dakota finally left her catatonic state and forced a look towards her companion. She didn't need to speak, Ryan already knew what she wanted to say, and he shook his head with a chuckle, walking over to her and offered out an arm. 

"You get used to it. Come on, I'll fill you in on 'initiation night' before they come out here and yell at us for not getting ready," his deep voice comforted, and in a kind of weird, zombie-like instinct, Dakota latched onto his arm and let him lead her back to the floor that they both shared together, starting off his explanation with, "So, initiation night is basically like a holiday to us."

-

Out of all the places in the city that could've been chosen, in the monstrous sized city of Los Santos, the one that the Fake AH Crew stood in front of (via Ray's less-than-reliable connections) was the most crowded, loud, and expensive nightclub that any of them had ever seen. It was only a few months old, having earned a reputation hastily as "the hippest joint in town, with spectacular events and DJs and hosts that appeared daily!"

The line outside was completely outrageous, lining down the block and around the corner, which roughly held about 150 plus people, nearly all of them young, skanky girls and a mixture of older, trying to be cool men or prime, douchebag boys with slicked up hair and too tight shirts. The population made the air thick with chatter and flirt, guys already hitting on the giggling girls and suggesting what they should do later in the night.

The lights from the inside were rapidly changing with the loud thump of the subwoofer, from red to pink to blue to purple to white and repeat, all shining out of the two story windows and the door that would open and shut as a bouncer let party-goers in.

Every single member felt out of place to say the least. Even Ray, who thought that his friend, the manager of the club, was correct by saying that his place was the best spot in San Andreas, felt like he had been inevitable cheated.

The club, hideously named "The Lowdown," did seem to be a pretty big hit- to the extent of naïve young adults and to desperate, clingy men. But it seemed that three older men, accompanied by three younger men and a youthful woman, all criminally active and used to... less dense crowds were suddenly vulnerable and unique to this hectic area filled with the certain off-put that someone would get when walking into a teen store in the mall.

They at one point thought they were in the wrong place, but when Ray reluctantly walked across the street to ask the bouncer if his name was on the list, sure enough it was there, and he turned to usher his friends over with a wave of his hand.

At his signal, the rest of the crew began a trek across the street, trying their hardest to avoid eye contact with the people in the line and anyone else who was around them at the time. It was almost embarrassing to be seen going into that place and they wanted no part of it, especially Geoff who kept complaining and complaining about how he was a grown ass man going into a nightclub that reminded him of some fucked up high school dance. Jack, who walked along side him, agreed and they both grumbled together about it.

Dakota took up the back with Gavin, who just as she had suspected, she began to talk a strong liking to as he her, and Michael and Ryan were right there with them. 

"Should've known Ray would've brought us to the absolute fucking worst club ever from the last time we let him choose where to go out for the night," Michael grumbled, his eyes never tearing away from the fixed gaze he had on the entrance.

"He's done this before?" Dak inquired with a certain amount of curiosity in her tone.

"Yeah! And not just like, one time, but like fucking three times at least! Guy has no goddamn taste! And he has even worse connections when it comes to this shit!" Michael's voice raised a few levels.

Dakota chuckled along with the two men accompanying her and the already angered Michael, and she stole a glance at Ryan, who returned it with a raise of his eyebrows and a slight smile. 

She still couldn't get over the fact that he had an actual face underneath his mask. It had been days since the "big reveal" as she was referring to it, and her brain still couldn't quite wrap around it, not to mention that he was unbelievably handsome and he seemed to grow even more attractive every time she looked at him or spoke to him, which was a lot. The two had been around each other a bunch, suddenly and understandably, because he had been helping her unpack things in her apartment after noticing the first day that she was struggling to open her door and carry three boxes at the same time. Luckily, he was coming back up from a store run, and after watching her attempt to fumble with her keys while juggling the cardboard boxes, then drop them and try to pick them up, only to literally let everything go and spill everywhere, he came to her aid.

Ryan took the boxes inside as she muttered multiple thank you's and ended up staying to take her belongings out with her and put them wherever she told him to, and afterwards when she needed to run back to one of her places and get the rest of the things she was bringing, somehow Ryan ended up driving her over there. They would talk, grab boxes, put them in the car, talk more, take out the boxes, talk and laugh at each other, and then go inside her newly appointed apartment and talk longer while setting up her place to feel more like her fourth home.

The others would come by sometimes, there to suggest their own help but really just stay to converse and at one point on the second night, all seven of them were there, getting to know each other and eating their take-out together like it was a normal routine. And Dakota was definitely thankful for that. She wanted them to be comfortable with her and she wanted to be comfortable with them, and that didn't take long for it to happen at all. 

And even as comfortable as she was with them, Ryan too, she just couldn't get over his face although she had held conversations with it more than once, walked with it side by side, and listened to it. 

The group reached Ray and together they all walked unsurely into the nightclub, and just upon their entrance, they all felt more embarrassed than ever as it was worse inside than it was outside. The whole joint was practically torn out from a movie, with everything from the structure to the people being exactly the way it would be inside of some romance or action flick, and it almost made them want to high tail it out of there. But before any of them could, a woman sprinted over to their pack and immediately flung herself upon Geoff, showering him words that couldn't be made out in the mixture of voices and thundering music, and she wrapped herself around him, refusing to let go.

She was a pretty thing, short, almost winter-blonde hair and a very defined face, high cheekbones and relaxed, beautiful blue eyes that matched the blue top she wore. She had a septum piercing, the ring black, but the part that Dakota couldn't stop looking at and admiring to herself were the wondrous amounts of gorgeous tattoos cascading this woman's arms. Dak instantly remembered that Geoff had sleeves of his own.

Geoff smiled probably the biggest grin that she had yet seen on him, and he snaked his arms around the lady's waist, leaning down to plant a small kiss on her lips, murmuring a small, "I guess you missed me."

"Hey, Griffon!" the guys called in unison, their different voices all sticking out amongst each other, leaving Dakota clueless to herself. The woman poked her head over Geoff's shoulder and instituted a wave.

"Hey guys!" Her eyes caught onto Dakota, and instead of becoming an immediate hardass like Dak expected all of a sudden, they became wide and she even seemed to _be smiling bigger than she originally was_. "Is this the newest member that I heard about? Holy shit, she's hot!"

Griffon let go of Geoff and walked to Dakota, holding out a hand, her grin still evident. Dakota, though a little surprised by the quick take up to her, didn't feel at all threatened, but she felt welcomed. She decided to stick with her joking nature and return the friendliness that she was receiving, and she lightly took the person's hand that was outstretched to her.

"Can't say that you're too bad yourself. Dakota. It's nice to meet you."

Griffon chuckled and turned to look at Geoff, still holding onto the other's hand while doing so. "You always find the best ones, don't you, babe?" Then she faced Dak again. "I'm Griffon. Guess you could say that I'm Geoff's old lady, but that doesn't sound flattering at all to me, so I don't tend to say it, but sadly, I can't run away from the truth that I'm married to that one back there."

"Hey, are you talking shit about me over there? 'Cause if you are, then let's just be reminded that you're the one who agreed to marry _me_ ," Geoff insisted.

"Oh, and what a prize I won by marrying the guy whose first line to me was, 'Hi, I'm Geoff, and I'm not as disappointing as I look,'" Griffon intoned sarcastically, earning a loud scoff.

"It worked didn't it?!"

Griffon shook her head with a snigger, and she released her grip on Dakota. "So it's your initiation night, huh? Kind of a big deal."

"That's all that I heard on the way over here," Dakota replied, remembering how literally everyone in the car kept telling her how huge of a thing that tonight was and that it was probably better than your birthday being on Christmas. "The only part I'm looking forward to is getting shitfaced and then getting praised the whole night."

"Well, you better get ready, because that's exactly what's gonna happen!" Griffon looked over to the crew and made a nod behind her that sent them all walking to where she had moved her head. She too went with them, forcing Dak to follow, and the two stayed by each other as they walked.

Griffon made small talk with her counterpart as they pushed their way through the hoard of people in the building, then proceeded to ascend up a flight of stairs that spiraled up to the second floor, and she guided her over to a booth in the corner where another woman sat, looking wonderful with fiery red hair that faded off into blonde tips, and she seemed to stand out in her white, long sleeved dress against the darkness of the room. As soon as the group arrived, the woman rose and ran up to Michael, plummeting into his arms and earning a loud _oomph_ from him before he chuckled and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Dakota remembered that all of the guys minus Ryan had girlfriends, and she assumed that this person was Michael's significant other.

When the hugging ceased and the group began to shuffle into the booth together, Michael's girlfriend lit up upon seeing Dakota, which again surprised her that these women were more than okay with her. She offered a warm, big smile behind her plump, red lips, and a soothing alto voice registered into her ears.

"You must be Dakota! I would say that I've heard everything about you, but the most that Michael told me was that he smart mouthed you and then got scared you'd kick his ass," she said and gave Michael a mocking look that he returned with a scowl and a flip of his middle finger.

"Oh, fucking sue me, Lindsay! You didn't even get the story right anyway!"

She ignored him and took up Dakota's other side, sitting back down and patting the space next to her for the other two women to fit in. They obliged without any hesitation, and once they were all settled, it was like the drinking immediately began and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. 

It wasn't even like there was a choice- a waiter walked by and instead of them all ordering whatever they wanted, Geoff demanded that he bring them a few bottles of their good stuff and glasses to put the liquor in, and when the boy returned with the requests, it just kind of snowballed from there.

The first thing was that Dakota was forced into chugging half of one of the four bottles that was brought back to them, like it was set in stone that she had to do it or else. A very expensive bottle of vodka was slid down the circle table right at her, and she had to catch it with her hand before it fell into her lap. Then the nagging and pleading came, along with insults that threatened her pride and ego if she didn't chug half of the bottle, and then it just came down to all of them yelling at her to do it and not be such a fucking drag.

Don't get her wrong, Dakota was never a lightweight and she loved having a good drink, but it was just weird to suddenly have these men that she had really not even known forcing her to down vodka just because she was good at what she did and that's how they praised her for it. She wasn't used to being surrounded by people again. She had been alone for so long, so accustomed to working on her own and never really trying to be involved with anyone else but herself that it made her forget what is was like to have friends, to have fun with others. 

It was a little overwhelming, no matter how much she liked these people. They were good to her, and she was good to them because she really, really wanted to be a part of what they were, of what they stood for. It was going to take a little coaxing to break entirely out of her shell, but as the men and the women demanded that she stop lollygagging and get on with it, she decided that the best first step she could give herself would be to please them and go along with their little initiation night.

Two minutes of insults was all it took until she finally slammed her hands onto the table, clutched the clear bottle full of even clearer liquid, popped the top with a flick of her thumb, and started to chug. When it reached halfway, she stopped, setting the bottle back where it was while the burn of alcohol flowed down her throat and into her stomach, and even though she felt like shit already, Dakota didn't let the sensation overtake her and ruin her night of fun that she was going to have.

All sets of eyes were resting on her as she darted her own gaze to every single pair of them, and it didn't take long for a roar of cheers to erupt over the vibrations from the music below them, everyone at her booth approving whole heartedly. She couldn't conceal the smile that tugged at her lips as Griffon clasped an arm onto her back and shook her, stating things like how she was going to fit in just fine and that it was about time someone else could drink like that. 

Dak's vision began to slowly vignette and slow down, but it didn't stop her. She knew how to hold her alcohol because she did take after her father after all, and she knew that her limit was nowhere to be reached yet. So when Michael started to talk crap, acting like he could do better, she shoved a shotglass towards him, keeping one for herself, then picked out the 101 proof bourbon that sat in the middle of the table, and with a grin that could freeze over Hell, she cooed to him, "Put your money where your mouth is then and show me just how many shots of this you can take before hitting the floor."

-

By the time that two A.M. rolled around inside of the Lowdown, the population of people slivered down to half of what it was originally; the shrouds of young adults moving on to another location, some old-timers who didn't get their luck cut out for them returned home to slumber alone. All who remained were standing around the dance floor downstairs, holding drinks and almost whispering to outside ears under the roar of the music although they were speaking as loud as hoarse throats would allow.

The club looked to have run it's course in just a meager few hours, not outliving it's reputation so far as the biggest and wildest nightclub that resided inside of Los Santos borders because also the upstairs was unoccupied expect for the few partiers that dotted tables and chairs and booths, either independently or in small groups, not wanting to join the bottom floor. The loft would have been eerie in the darkness, barely gifted any light from the colorful strobes below that illuminated the subtle, modern structure. 

"Would have been" was the phrase of the night, though.

Because if it was any other way, Dakota would have been back at HQ being a homebody, snuggling into her new bed by herself and watching some rerun of a movie that was on the movie channel. She would have been having no fun in that, just dimly looking at the screen and unintentionally mouthing the words to the script that she had heard thousands of times before.

She probably would have been reconsidering her life at that moment too, wondering where she had went from being a well-known mercenary to lying in an unfamiliar room in a building that she still wasn't quite used to, all of a sudden tangled into a crew with men that she didn't even know for more than a week. 

And then at that point, she probably would have gotten out of bed, shuffling awkwardly over to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and then leave her apartment, going outside into the hall to find someone to talk to, to do something with, specifically Ryan who she was thinking about for some reason and- _wait, hold the hell up, Dak, don't get ahead of yourself! What are you thinking? Just stop yourself right there, buddy._

Maybe it was the booze talking, because God knew that she had a lot of it in her system as of now, or maybe it was something else, but her head was swimming and the loud laughter that rung into her ears wasn't helping, and she brushed it off quickly and concentrated on what she was doing.

Wait... what _was_ she doing?

She didn't even know where she was! All she remembered is that a song had come on that she liked, and in a blur she grabbed Griffon and Lindsay by the hands and dragged them to the bar, and then she started to beg the guy to dance on the counter like that one film that just so happened to air almost every Thursday night on those movie channels she was talking about.

Griffon and Lindsay were more than amused, but considering the fact that they wanted to have some fun, they joined in on the banter and supported the woman that they had very obviously grown close to over the course of time that they met. It was like a switch turned on, and from the moment that all of the met eyes, a deep kind of bond developed underlying in the even just the way they talked, gestured, and looked at one another. There was no denying the sense of friendship that quickly bloomed with the women. Everyone saw it, and that was a good thing.

And it was in that time too that the guys thought that they were growing closer to the girl and getting more insight on her. From the start, she was very open, even when she held a gun at them, but they assumed that she wasn't going to be as much of an open book because for so long she was forced to trust herself and no one else except her father and her business partners. She just acted and looked too professional for that kind of stuff, the stuff that involved feelings and being a loose canon.

But Dakota Dayley turned out to be nothing short of a loose canon, and it was interesting to watch her come out of her protective coating with a few shots. Sure, maybe it wasn't exactly her real self because alcohol didn't really make you become the person you wanted to be sober, but it was a step in the direction that they had all been looking for, and a damn funny one at that.

Although she couldn't remember what she was doing, like at all, the guys remembered exactly that after she was told she couldn't dance on the bar, she started threatening a very drunken Geoff with incoherent babblings about how he couldn't beat her at chugging a forty, to which Geoff became offended and took her on. But the bartender again cut them down shortly, and after lots of insults flung his way and a few trips over one another, the two leaned an arm around the other and stumbled toward the booth. They fell down right on top of Ray, who's intoxication levels was off the charts along with just about everyone else, and he started to stutter and flail like a child underneath them. It took a minute to get off of him, but eventually the man and woman did, and they plopped down next to Ryan.

He was the only one besides Lindsay who was completely sober as they volunteered themselves early on in the night to be designated drivers. It earned protests from everyone else, but Ryan stayed glued to his position and joined Lindsay in sipping a mild margarita, then turning onto water for the rest of the night. He didn't have to be wasted to have fun. The sight of his friends not being able to finish their sentences and yelling wildly, acting like clowns anywhere that it was possible in the club was more than enough for him. He didn't need alcohol to laugh and have a conversation with them.

He watched as Gavin ran up the stairs to his left at the front of the loft, his face red from the irregular amounts alcohol in his blood, and Michael was right behind him, chasing the Brit while giggling uncontrollably. It was only seconds later that Lindsay emerged with a stern face, and when Ryan gave a questioning raise of his eyebrows, she answered him with a curt gesture to her feet that were shoeless. When he looked closer at the two young men running about, he noticed that they each were carrying a shoe.

Ryan chuckled and shook his head, out of exhaustion and pure amusement because _Jesus, they stole her shoes, but she was definitely gonna get on them after they were back into it._ He turned his attention back onto the booth, barely hearing the last part of a story that Jack was telling as he tried his hardest to seem like he was still good, although he might have been one of the worst ones of them all at that point. The man had downed four beers and had the other half of the bottle that Dakota chugged earlier, not to mention he totally snuck off with two women's daiquiris and added his own substances to them to make them stronger. 

"-and then she told me, 'Hey, what the hell are you doing with that?! That's mine!' and I told her, 'Fuck off, lady, you're delirious!' Bitch was so stunned she couldn't even speak! It... it did look like she was talking though, now that I think about it," Jack hiccupped, struggling to keep his head up as his neck started to wobble.

"That was literally like twenty minutes ago, Jack," Griffon pointed out. She wasn't in as bad of shape as the others around her, but she was drunk enough that it convinced Ryan she wasn't good to drive. She might have been deceptive when it came to knowing whether or not she was truly buzzing or not, but Ryan had a gut instinct and took himself upon it. "And she _was_ talking, she screamed at you and then threw her friend's drink at you."

Jack looked down and through the blurriness he saw a wet splotch on his shirt- but it didn't feel wet, even as he looked at it.

"Oh," he muttered, sounding confused and like he didn't care at the same time, just shrugged it off and turned to Ray who seemed to be enjoying his story thoroughly and demanded for more, leaving the two of them to talk, Jack bragging about some stupid thing that probably happened five minutes ago and Ray gawking at him like an admiring little sibling.

The two men that had been off chasing one another were now getting into the booth too at the other end near where Griffon propped herself up on her elbows, their faces stifling laughter as a very uninterested Lindsay fell into the booth herself, and Ryan saw that she had both of her shoes again. He was about to address the situation, but the woman next to him beat him to it.

"Heeey, Linds," Dakota slurred, and she closed her eyes for a moment before reopening them and keeping them wide to focus on the red head. Ryan couldn't help but notice the way she was falling slightly towards him, unaware of her balance being off, and a weird feeling in his stomach made him start leaning into it, his arm ready to catch her- but she realized that she was moving and caught herself, and he reeled himself back.

He couldn't take his eyes off of her for some reason, like he needed to watch to make sure she wouldn't start to fall again. He observed the way that she was pressing her hands onto the surface of the table, trying to steady herself, and the way that her hair would whip around every time she pushed off of the wood to stay upright. The small smile on her lips burned itself in his mind in the dim lighting abruptly, and it was all he could see. _What the hell?_ The feeling in his stomach- the tight, strange nervousness- still resonated and he tried to shake it off. 

_Come on, Haywood. You're imagining things._

"Where've you been?" Dakota continued with a hiccup, earning a loud guffaw from Geoff that practically banged his head against the table to conceal his face.

"Don't you start either," Lindsay grumbled, her arms coming up to cross over her chest as she glared at her boyfriend and the man next to him. It was obvious that she wasn't in the mood for drunk people, so Ryan decided to divert the conversation to make sure that Lindsay wasn't going ot blow her top from Dakota's pestering.

"Hey, Dak," he started, but immediately became startled when her head whipped to him quickly, knocking straight into his arm. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders, steadying her, and when he thought that his touch lingered for a second too long, he pulled away in a sort of jittery fear that she had noticed their seemingly prolonged contact. But when she just gazed at him, a permanent half smile tugging at her lips as she fought to keep her eyes open, he sighed mentally and continued. "You told me earlier to remind you when you're past the point of driving yourself home-"

Ryan almost didn't finish his sentence because Dakota now looked completely alert and aware of her surroundings just like she had been before she drank. He was staring at him wide-eyed, and he half expected her to blow her top off for telling her that she was too drunk, and he waited. Yet her harsh words and roaring yell never came. 

Dakota instead was leaning- slowly, not to her attention- backwards into Geoff on the other side of her, and her eyelids had finally closed as a content expression pondered on her face. The woman was more than out of it, she was absolutely wrecked and Ryan knew it from one sideways glance at her. 

For God's sake, she couldn't even sit upright, let alone struggle to look at a person for more than two seconds without fluttering her eyes! 

"Yeah, you're past that point."

"No, 'm fine!" Dak retaliated, hesitation to attempt sitting back up in the booth until she decided against it and laid back onto the leader of the crew who honestly looked like he was sleeping on the sturdy table. "I'm-I'm good to go, I swear, I swear."

"No, it's too late. You told me to tell you, and now I am, and since I'm about the only reasonable one here besides Lindsay, I'm not letting you drive yourself."

A load groan escaped her lips, teasingly or not, he couldn't tell due to her state, but he shook his head more to himself and opened his mouth to speak to the other sober person across the way. "We took two different cars here, two of the SUV's so we could find this place together, so I guess you take one and I'll-"

Before the two knew it, they heard a sickening thud against the hard floor below them, and both stood to see where the noise came from. They were the only ones concerned though as Jack and Ray rambled on to each other, Gavin and Michael were still giggling uncontrollably and were now taking it upon themselves to wad up the napkins and throw them into Jack's beard, and Geoff more than likely actually _was_ passed out while Griffon stayed perched to herself and listened to Jack. It was almost annoying that they had to play babysitter, but it wasn't a huge surprise because this was a normal thing, and who knew? They'd probably be the ones that were plastered and in need of assistance next time. 

Their gaze flickered onto the floor where they heard the sound, and sure enough, there was Dakota, laying face first into the concrete, her arms sprawled in front of her and her hair scattered around her head. Ryan had half a mind to go to her aid instantly, a deep concern for her breaking it's way into his mind, but when she started to move around on her own and a laugh came out muffled from her body, he stopped himself.

Part of the man wanted to be mad, to be annoyed at her behavior. He had only known her a few days and it was already like he had to watch her every move and make sure that she was okay. But he realized that he didn't even have to. It just rushed up on him over the course of time that they befriended one another. Was befriended the right word? They were friends at that point, right?

He did show her around HQ once or twice and they spent some time together when arranging her apartment to her liking, and she acted friendly with him. It was fair enough that he could use the word to describe them. But he didn't know exactly along the line where the two had actually became friends. They just clicked from the moment of their first conversation- hell, probably even when they locked eyes at the Davis building that night.

There was no denying that he had felt somewhat close to Dakota after that, and he wanted to see her again so badly that he swore it was a form of desire that pushed him to look for her with the guys. Ryan anticipated meeting her face to face properly for those two days, and with all the joking from Michael, he started to actually believe it himself that he... liked her. Liked her enough to want something that he couldn't quite describe, and even now, as he started to get out of the booth to help the intoxicated woman up, he felt that same feeling.

Ryan had no idea where all of this was coming from, and he pushed it to the back of his mind as he lifted Geoff up to pass by him, letting the other's head fall straight back onto the table, but Geoff wasn't phased from his slumber and continued on sleeping, a bruise already making surface on his head that he would complain about tomorrow.

Dakota didn't make a move as Ryan hooked her by her arms and hauled her up to her feet. If anything, she became heavier, and to this Ryan huffed while picking her up, surprised to find that she was not as light as she looked. He snaked a hand onto her waist and hoisted one of her limp arms onto her shoulder and turned to face Lindsay.

"I guess I need to get her back. She must've been climbing over sleeping beauty there to get another drink and just fell off. Can you handle getting these guys into one of the SUV's?" Ryan questioned, and she waved him off with a hand.

"Fuck that! I brought the soccer mom van in case something like this happened," Lindsay's face shifted to a light smile. "Besides, I've had to deal with worse. You should know that. Get her back in one of those cars and I'll remind Michael tomorrow morning to go back with me to get the other one."

Ryan returned a slight grin and nodded at her. "If they give you any shit, I'll come straight back."

And with that, Ryan gripped onto Dakota's waist a little tighter, small, incoherent words slipping out of her mouth that he couldn't catch, and he trudged off with her downstairs (which turned out to be a big problem because he nearly dropped her twice as she became deadweight) and outside into the night. He started back across the street, the thumping of the music still apparent from the nightclub behind him, and once he reached the car, he unlocked the passenger's side first with keys that he grabbed from the middle of the table earlier and slowly helped Dakota inside.

After somehow successfully getting her in without trouble, Ryan himself slipped into the driver's seat and started the car, pulling out from the curb and heading back. He didn't turn up the radio in fear to make her head swim anymore than it probably was, and he didn't speak either unless answering a question like, "Where are we going?" or "Why does the club look different?" A few times of repeating his answers, and she was finally good to go, lolling off into a happy trance where she looked out of the window or at Ryan and made a cheesy little attempt to smile. He couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head at her, thinking it was weirdly adorable how her face scrunched up and her eyes squinted when she threw out her closed-mouthed smiles. 

_You really need to stop. You barely know this girl at all and you're acting like some high school kid by thinking these things._

When the car stopped in the garage in the back of HQ and Ryan went to let Dakota out, she regained a little bit of herself and genuinely tried to help him by wrapping an arm onto him, and she walked as well as she could underneath his side embrace although her vision made everything look doubled, such as her own feet. At one point, Dak tripped, but Ryan was fast enough to make sure she never hit the floor, and she sniggered to herself again.

It wasn't as hard this time to get her through doors, but it was still a hassle, especially when they got into the elevator and she pushed every single button on the pad except for their floor just to make Ryan angry. Although slightly annoyed, he just sighed and hit the button with his palm and returned both of his arms to relax around her.

"Why... are you helping me?" her voice came out slightly slurred and a little jagged, but it was one of the only things he could understand that she had said to him ever since they got in the car, and without looking down at her although he knew she was drunkenly staring upwards at him, he replied.

"I don't know. I was already a DD, and you aren't in good shape. I couldn't just leave you laying on the floor like that," he shrugged, but Dakota shook her head slowly as if it were hard to shake it normally, and she stopped when her head began to spin.

"I mean... I mean like, just... lately... Not just now, but yesterday, and the day before and... is there a word for the day before that? There should be."

Ryan couldn't hold back a deep chuckle. "It's no big deal, really. You're gonna be a part of the team, and you're not the worst person to join, so... I guess I just kind of like you."

He hadn't meant to say it. It just came out with the rest of what he said, and for some odd reason, he became nervous suddenly, like she wasn't going to take what he said well. It wasn't like what he said was false; he did like her, and it meant nothing more than that. A person could like another person as a friend and admit it and it wouldn't be awkward or weird because it was just a polite statement. And even though Ryan knew that, he still was a little hesitant to hear her reply.

Dakota didn't think anything of it. Maybe if she wasn't drunker than a skunk then she would have taken his words into consideration, being the observant little weasel that she was. But all hyped up on liquor, she didn't pay any mind to it and abruptly let her mouth do the talking.

"I like you too."

They didn't need to say anything after that. The air was comfortable following her words, and when the doors opened to reveal their floor level, they both got off and he took her to her apartment. She fumbled in her pocket for the key before handing it to him, and with a swift movement, he opened it with ease and allowed them in. 

Ryan walked Dakota to her couch and sat her down. She didn't sit at all, instead immediately fell like she was a ton of bricks that had been dropped to the floor after a long trek, and it wasn't untruthful. Drunk, Dak was pretty much just that, not picking up her feet or anything along those lines again after the elevator ride. Ryan didn't take a seat next to her. He stood and watched as she tried to take off her shoes, failing miserably when messing around with the shoe laces. She gave up and threw her feet onto the couch, earning an earnest eye roll from her male companion before he bent down.

"You're a mess already, Dakota, and it hasn't even been a week," he grumbled with a teasing tone in his voice as he pulled off her first shoe and set it by the leg of the couch. 

"Am not! 'M just kind of... tired," she sounded groggy and Ryan knew that he'd have to leave soon.

"Yeah, well, you get some rest. You'll have plenty of opportunities to beat all of us again in some kind of drinking game," he stated.

"Drink with me next time." The "x" in her word came out more like an "s," and only confirmed that she was dead tired and wasted. 

"Okay. I've got you next time," Ryan rounded the couch and patted the arm next to her head. "I'm right next door if you need anything."

Ryan left after that, gently closing the door, and he head inside his own apartment, alone to the darkness of the room with the only light coming through from the window. He made his way towards the bedroom and changed, then sat at the foot of his bed and put his face in his hands, sighing. 

He didn't know why she kept running through his mind. Just the way they had spoken, the way that their small brushes against one another sent a weird sensation through him, and the image of her laughing tipsily stained his brain's eye. He could practically revive her appearance because of how vivid it was, how fresh it seemed. 

Ryan didn't want to. God knew he didn't need someone to occupy his thoughts because he had enough to focus on in his job. He needed to focus on the crew and their businesses and not be concerned over someone who only had just joined them. He had five other men to think about, to risk his life to keep alive, and he didn't need another person coming in and making him care even more. He didn't need her to be there at the back of his mind suddenly, smiling and speaking as if she had known him for years, because he didn't need to worry himself with yet another burden.

And he most of all didn't want her to know about... his other side. The reputation that preceded him wherever he went in the state or the country. The one that deemed him psychotic, the one that-

_Whoa, whoa! What are you going on about? Why would you even think that she could possibly be another thing to worry about, another "burden?" You're getting yourself in over your head. Just slow down and stop and then you won't have to concern yourself with her. She's a part of the team now, and there's nothing weird to it._

As he finally whisked himself out of his thoughts, Ryan laid down to bed and crawled underneath the covers, resting an arm under his head to prop himself up. That night when he finally slept, he dreamt of nothing, and when he woke the next morning, he was almost disappointed that he didn't.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the wait. The past few months got really, really busy for me! But I will try to make a come back guys! So enjoy!

The next morning was utterly hell.

After a short night of sleeping and rolling around uncomfortably on the couch, Dakota woke subtly, but it didn't stop her from falling off of the edge onto the wood floor, somewhere in the process hitting her head on the coffee table. The impact made it throb even more than it already was, and she swore that her brain was rattling around inside of her skull.

The room was bright, too fucking bright, and the golden rays filled it to the brim, dust motes floating around freely like millions of little specks swimming in an airy sea.

She couldn't think straight. Everything that came to mind would either become cloudy, or she couldn't make sense of it and pushed it away so she didn't have to suffer from any more vicious throbbing. It didn't help that she nearly gave herself a damn concussion.

With a deep sigh, Dakota grabbed the table and propped herself up without ease, then sluggishly got to her feet. Her throat felt dry and it burned heavily, and before she knew it, she was heading towards the kitchen and stopped in front of the fridge. Her hand gripped the metal handle and opened the door, but upon inspection, Dak groaned.

"Of course when I'm hungover there'd be no water," the woman grumbled and rubbed her face with her palms.

She had no idea where to go from there. Her thoughts were so muddy that it seemed impossible to make one that was complete and collected. Thinking just made it even worse. So Dakota stood wearily, deciding whether or not to actually think about her next move, when it finally hit her that the lobby had a bar. Had a fridge with bottled water on the inside. And that was all the motivation she needed to head out of her apartment and down the hallway, but not without stealing a glance at Ryan's closed door next to her own.

When her legs tried to linger a little too long while trying to figure out if the man was within his apartment, Dak had to force herself to continue on her quest to the bottom level. She wondered what made her even stop, but immediately shook it off and found the elevator, pushing the button and stepping inside once it arrived. 

The short ride took forever in her mind as all of the aches and pains and dry sensations blended into one, and as every little bit of light pouring from the ceiling of the elevator started to blind her thoroughly. She tried to shield her eyes, but as soon as she did, the doors sprung open and she practically dove out and speed-walked to the bar in the lobby.

The woman immediately found the fridge tucked away behind the wooden bar, and she opened it and grabbed one of the bottles of water without hesitation and began to chug it vigorously. The cold liquid soothed her aching throat, and she sighed in relief and shut her eyes while leaning back onto the island filled with expensive bottles of alcohol behind her. 

The night before was a blur and there was nothing that she could vividly remember from the club. It was like as soon as she started to become tipsy that everything just got tossed from her memory, and it made her a bit upset that she couldn't remember how she acted. Dak could admit that when she got drunk, it could be pretty messy sometimes, and she didn't want to make herself seem like a complete fool in front of her newly found friends and crew members. But even as she stood and reminisced on the last night, she had a gut feeling that most of them were too drunk to even notice any possible stupid acts that she could have committed.

Then it hit her. The only thing that she remembered about the club was leaving it, and she wasn't alone, because suddenly in the cloudiness of her mind, she could see Ryan slinging her arm over his shoulder and lugging her alcohol-weighted body out of the building and into a car. She could see the way that he carefully placed her inside and double checked to make sure that her seat belt was strapped on tight, and the way that he would methodically answer her blabbering questions that she repeated over and over.

Dakota could almost relive the moments when he would look over at her while driving just to make sure that she was still okay, and she couldn't help but remember the way that his piercing blue eyes glowed in the lines of moonlight peaking through the windshield. And how he practically carried her into her own apartment, setting her down on the couch and making sure she was settled and satisfied before he said his goodbyes.

For some reason as Dakota held onto her water bottle and thought back on his helpfulness, she felt different. It was a kind of different that she hadn't felt in a while; the kind of feeling a person gets when they feel that they're safe and secure. The last time she felt it was with her father when he was still alive. 

Even as a child, when he and her mother were still playing their game of cat and mouse, the few times that he could sneak in to see his daughter, she felt like nothing would ever touch her with her father by her side. And even after her mother's death, one that the girl grieved so hard, with Tobias next to her, the world couldn't stop them and she felt truly protected. She could even say that Burnie also gave her this security after Tobias had passed.

The feeling was something of a bittersweet purity that way too few people in her life had ever given her, and it was odd that she vaguely began to feel it again, especially over something that was nothing more than a simple gesture. Ryan was just being a good friend and there was no way that it meant more than that. She was probably just learning to deal with being close to people again because it had been a good while since she was around someone longer than two consecutive days.

There was nothing to his gesture, and that was that.

"Surprised to see you up after how hammered you got last night," she heard a voice call not too far from where she was, and Dakota instantly opened her eyes to find Jack standing in front of the bar, looking at her with a smug smile and hands draped lazily in his jean pockets.

She replied with a small chuckle and took another swig from the plastic bottle wrapped in her hands. 

"Honestly, I am too. Apparently I hit it pretty heavy," her voice came out smooth compared to the burning that still tickled her throat. Jack nodded in agreement and couldn't help but laugh himself.

"Can't say that I was any better, but one the things I actually remember from it all is you trying to climb over the back of Geoff in the booth and then kissing the ground as soon as you started."

Dakota squinted her face at him. " I seriously did that?! Oh my God!"

"Hey, calm down! It was funny! What, do you think we all have a different outlook on you now or something?" Jack asked playfully.

"Actually, yeah, that's exactly what I think. I just don't want to make a bad first impression is all," she rubbed her elbow as she spoke, and Jack noticed that she really did seem embarrassed. He took a step closer to the bar and leaned over on it, glancing back at the woman with an amused expression drawn across his bearded face.

"No offense, Dakota, but your first impression was way worse than getting drunk with friends and making out with the floor. But that obviously didn't last, because if it did, you'd obviously not be in this building right now," Jack stated, and after a few seconds, he pushed himself back up to stand tall. "And in case you haven't observed already, we're pretty much a bunch of fucking five year olds trapped in men's bodies. I don't think there's anyway you can add damage to your image as much as we can to ourselves."

Dakota smirked while listening to Jack talk. She couldn't argue with him because he was completely right. These guys were professional, but when they were behind the scenes just from what she could tell, they were literally kids. They fought, kicked, laughed too loud, yelled unnecessarily at everything and everyone, and they were inappropriate and immature at all of the right (and wrong) times. 

But even saying all of that, she liked it that way. She never got a chance to live like a rambunctious teenager or snotty little ten year old, and in the short time that she had been with them, she already knew that they were going to be able to bring that out of her. Those men were definitely not the caliber that they put themselves out to be, but that made them even better, even more likeable.

Dakota liked Jack too because he was probably one of the most childish ones. He acted just like a child, singing randomly and saying weird and stupid things, but he was smart, maybe too smart sometimes, and he thought things through. And just like she has suspected when she first laid eyes on him in the Davis building, he was as sweet as men came. They were all good qualities, and the fact that she could tell how hardworking he was just from appearance and personality meant that he was a valuable asset to the Fake AH Crew.

She quickly liked him, and like the rest, she knew that their friendship was going to forge as fast as a wildfire.

Dak got off of the island and walked around the side of the bar to meet the man out in the lobby. "I guess you're right. I mean, clearly I can't embarrass myself in front of men who freely sing Backstreet Boys- very badly, might I add- to guys hanging inside of the local convenient store to see who can get called gay first," she said, recalling an event a day or two ago where after she unpacked her stuff for the day, they all decided to head to the store down the street to get something to eat and the guys decided to come up with a weird little game. 

Jack won, to say the least.

"That's exactly what I'm saying! And by the way, Rocket Man isn't just a song. It's a way of life," he sassed with a more feminine voice.

Dakota lightly punched his shoulder and laughed. "Oh shut the hell up, don't start getting all worked up again."

They both began to walk to the elevator together, but before either one could press the button, Jack spoke up again. 

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I think Geoff was looking for you earlier. Told me if I found you to send you to the top floor."

"For what?"

"I think he's ready to give you your individual assignments."

"Jesus, just like that? Already?"

"Yeah. You're good, Dak. Impressive as hell. We all have skill, but you obviously take after your father, and even though we fan girl about that, you clearly have things that you've taught yourself and we're all excited for you to be on board. Personally, it's great to see you here with us because I think you're just what we need. I don't know how to explain it, but it just feels like-"

"Like fate?" Dakota finished his sentence early and quizzically gave the man a look, a softness radiating off of her face. Jack could tell that she had thought long and hard about this beforehand, and he knew that she somehow came to the same conclusion that he had. 

Because it was true. Jack couldn't quite explain what he meant, but when fate showed itself, he was the one who knew right away. And Jack was certain that Dakota Dayley coming into their lives was beyond anyone's control, and that they were all brought together for a reason. He felt it. And it was apparent that he wasn't the only one who felt it either.

Jack pressed the button for the elevator and returned her gaze as they waited. "Yeah. Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth."

The metal doors before them opened and both stepped into the elevator and pressed the numbers that they needed to get to their floors. 

"You really think that me coming here was unexplainable, Jack?" Dakota instantaneously asked as soon as the doors shut again, and he cocked his head at her. She looked forward to gather her thoughts and continued. "I- I mean... like what you said. That it's fate. That we were brought together because it's just what needed to be?"

"You've thought a lot about this since you joined us, huh?"

"Yeah... I guess I have. I mean, it's not everyday that a story like ours just happens to collide the way we did. And the join forces like that? I never would have thought I would have said yes if this was a few months earlier. But suddenly when Geoff asked, although it was completely and utterly a bluff to get him out of the situation he was in, it was like somehow it was gonna happen all along, you know?"

Jack understood what she meant. There had been so many things in his life that he couldn't explain, but he knew they were going to be inevitable. And for some reason, he knew exactly what she meant because he thought the same thing. Of course Geoff's offer was a bluff. Geoff was good at conniving and weaseling his way out of a situation that wouldn't end well, and it saved their asses a lot more times than Jack could count on his fingers. And Dakota was one of those times. 

But it was more than that. It was more than just saving their asses. Jack knew that as soon as she signed on to their team, and that's how he knew that Dakota was fate. 

"I get that. It makes a lot of sense. And to answer your question, yes, I do really believe that this is fate. If anyone has had multiple encounters with her, it's me. So I genuinely believe it. Now so more than ever."

The elevator slowly stopped on the floor that Jack was getting off on, and when the doors slid open, he stepped out into the hallway and turned back towards Dakota, the same boyish smirk on his face that she witnessed earlier when he first came into the lobby to speak with her. 

"If you ever need anyone here, I'm just an elevator ride away. Don't be afraid to knock on my door anytime or give me a text or call. You have my number, right?"

"Yeah, I think I have yours and everyone else's. But thank you, Jack. I'll definitely take you up on that offer when I need it. I'll see you soon."

The gentle giant gave a wave at the woman as the doors retracted back into place, and she rode out the remainder of the ride to the top level in silence. It was nice to know that someone was for sure on her side in this new time in her life. It wasn't that she didn't trust the other, but just the fact that Jack was so persistent on reaching out to her, on letting her know that he was there for her whenever she needed, it comforted her.

He was a nice enough and reliable enough guy that Dakota knew she could go to him for whatever it was, and it honestly excited her. She'd never been so close with anyone besides Tobias, and now she had six guys in her life that were eager and willing to make her a part of their team. It was refreshing nonetheless. 

She knew that she'd be taking Jack up on his offer pretty soon because it had been a long time since she had someone to talk to about anything at all, and Dakota had a lot she wanted to gossip about.

-

Ryan hadn't even made it two steps out of his apartment and the guys were already calling him frantically and demanding that he go to Gavin's apartment and "speak with them about private matters." And when he said the guys, he really just meant Michael and Gavin, because Ray was out with Tina somewhere spending time with her and Jack was preparing to leave as well, or he probably just didn't care either way and didn't want to get into whatever it was that the other two wanted to talk about. 

But nonetheless, Ryan had no idea as to what his friends were so anxious to talk about, and if he had any common sense at all, it more than likely had to do with last night. Lindsay probably said something to a sobered up Michael, who told it on to Gav, and they both decided to team up and bust Ryan's balls about whatever it was. He almost betted himself twenty dollars that that's exactly what it was, and he almost didn't pick up his phone as it rang and rang in his pocket. But finally the man gave in and answered the call, telling the other end after a bunch of blubbering nonsense that he was on his way.

And there he was, on the third floor on HQ and heading towards Gavin's place just to satisfy his two younger friends, but yet he didn't know why he was even there. He didn't owe them anything, never had, and yet just like he always did, he went ahead and decided to amuse them for no apparent reason at all. 

He never understood why he did it, why he always tried to make others happy just because he didn't want to upset them. Ryan wasn't exactly the most _sane_ of people when it came to his work (the "burden" that he briefly thought about the night before after dropping Dak off at her apartment,) but when the curtains rolled down, he acted completely different around the guys. He was deemed one of the most ruthless, heartless men in the field at one point, and was even still considered such, but oddly enough, as soon as he joined the Fake AH Crew and got associated with the other five men, he was normal.

And that normality was something that he never had quite gotten used to. He definitely still had his moments, way too often than way too few, and he could rely on his hardened self when need be. And even then, when he heard the ridiculous giddy laughter from Geoff, or bird-like noises of distress from Gavin, or the unbelievable amount of anger residing in Michael, or Jack's childishness, or even Ray's always amazingly funny jokes, Ryan couldn't help but pitch in and contribute to them.

Although he sometimes hated himself for letting loose, for cutting so much slack compared to the person he used to be when he was a solo artist, he actually appreciated them more for chipping away at his sturdy wall that he had built up. But that was another story for another time, and he shook it off when he neared Gavin's apartment and instead reached for the handle, letting himself in.

Michael and Gavin were already inside, clearly waiting for Ryan's arrival hastily, and as soon as the door clicked, they jumped up and bombarded him with questions.

"How'd last night go?!"

"What'd you do when you took her back?!" 

"Was she really all over you all night?!"

"Did she try to kiss you?!"

"Did you try to kiss her?!"

Ryan threw up his hands in defense and eyeballed Michael and Gavin as they stood inches in front of him with eager, young faces and even more eager ears.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where the fuck did you get all of this from?"

"Lindsay," Michael answered innocently with a smirk.

"I fucking knew that this was what all of this was about," Ryan sighed. 

"Hey, don't look so mad, Ry," Gavin piped in, "We all have a girl that we're a little bit too into. It happens!"

"Shut the fuck up, Gavin, I don't know what you're on about."

Michael scoffed. "Oh, yeah right! Ryan, we can all see that you're into her!"

Ryan glowered his eyes towards the curly haired boy. "I don't get why you keep telling me that. Is it a sin to be nice to someone?! Jesus Christ!" He brushed past the two in front of him and started to walk away just to avoid their eye contact. But Michael quickly turned to follow and shrugged his shoulders. 

"Uhm, yeah, dude, it is! Especially for you! Even more so that it's a girl we're talking about here!"

"Screw you, Michael."

"No, no, just hear him out, I get what he's saying," Gavin interjected as he followed Michael towards Ryan, who was sitting down on the couch and sprawling himself out to get relaxed for the upcoming conversation. "He's just trying to say that it's been a long time since we've seen you so interested in someone and taken so quickly with them."

Ryan sat and looked forward at the TV that was playing some incredulous Vinewood movie, and he moved his arms up to the back of the couch while sinking into it's cushions. "I still don't get why that's such a big deal. I mean, yeah I guess that I like her, but it's cause she intrigued me back at the Davis building. She was a one person show that could definitely hold her own, and she fooled all of us. That's kind of a hard thing to do because barely anything gets past us anymore since we got more infamy."

"But that's exactly what I mean! You literally just said yourself that she intrigued you! That's how it all starts!" Michael raised his voice in a dumbfounded manner.

"You guys never are satisfied, are you?" Ryan asked as he picked up the remote and began to nonchalantly flip through the channels. "What did Lindsay even tell you? And I'll confirm what's true and what isn't."

"Well first she told us that the whole night you kept looking over at her and smiling at anything that she'd do," Gav stated.

"Bullshit."

"Maybe, but I do remember before I got stupidly drunk when she was at the bar and asking to dance on the island, you were smiling like a big asshole," the Brit recalled with a certain amount of bubbliness in his voice. Ryan rolled his eyes.

"Everyone was looking over there," he breathed and finally picked a show to watch as he forced himself to keep contributing to the conversation to defend himself.

Michael started back up. "She also said that before she took that spill, Dakota kept leaning into you and you weren't exactly pushing it away."

"What else am I supposed to do when someone clearly intoxicated beyond their own wellbeing can't even sit up straight? Just push her off and let her fall the other way? Which might I add didn't go to well for her when she finally decided to go the opposite direction."

"But Lindsay also went into detail about how fast you sprang into action when she spilled and the crazy, worried look you had on your face as you picked her up and swooped her away," Gav said. 

"And Lindsay also over exaggerates everything to make a good story out of it," the blond huffed while scratching his beard, staring at the screen but not really watching as fast cars sped away from hordes of cops that rained bullets upon them.

"Even if so, you keep declining what we're saying or you change the subject, and if we know you, then we know you do that when you're guilty."

"Guilty of what?!" Ryan yelled in disbelief and stood up abruptly, his height towering over both Gavin and Michael. They knew at that moment that they pushed their buddy a little too far and simultaneously decided to go easy on him to let him cool off. 

"Whoa, man, calm down," Michael uttered softer than before. "We're just yanking your chain."

And Ryan knew that that wasn't true, but it made him consider why he got so worked up in the first place. The guys always targeted him because he was easy to get steaming, it didn't take much to push him over the edge, but this was different. He got worked up so easily this time and he defended himself on the spot. It was almost instinct. 

And usually it took Ryan a while to come up with come backs for these sorts of things because God knew he wasn't great at them. But as Michael and Gavin interrogated him extensively, he replied with quick responses and tried to avoid any notion of what the men had to say. That was unusual for him.

He acted like there was a _reason_ that he was so offended by their words. If none of it was true, then it shouldn't have even bothered him in the first place, and that's what confused him the most.

Of course Ryan was still intrigued by the woman. She had talent and skill and character and he knew that from the moment that they met eyes. And over the past couple of days, he got to know her a little more each time that they were with each other. And maybe the fondness that Ryan had for Dak did grown, but it couldn't have been anything more than just their current friendship, right? 

He thought that it was too early to determine, yet he for some reason doubted himself. It should just be a yes or no thing with no maybes or in-between's and still he sat himself on the fence and couldn't figure it out for himself.

And then it hit him that maybe he was so stuck on deciding because he sometimes _did_ find his eyes wandering over to Dakota when she wasn't looking, and maybe the little pang that he felt each and every time he did so kept him from making up his mind. Or maybe the way that he laughed to himself when she would say something outrageous factored into it. It could have even been the times that he caught himself appreciating her stunning good looks just a little to much, or it could have been when she would send him even just the slightest gesture that his breath caught up in his throat and barely allowed him to speak, but he somehow always knew just how to play it off, or how he acted actually seemed nervous with her by his side in the club.

It also could have been the fact that ever since she joined the crew, Ryan had these exact same thoughts more times than one, too often for his liking. It confused him, frustrated him, and make him anxious all in one. And it made him even more mad that everybody else seemed to be picking up on his predicament before he even knew that it existed.

Ryan ran a hand through his hair and sighed, turning his back onto his friends while striding his way over to the dining table beyond the kitchen. He leaned onto it with his palms and felt the gentle cold from the wood caress his warm skin. Gavin cleared his throat in the other room.

"Yeah, uh, there's no need for a problem, Ryan, we were just-"

"No, you don't get it," Ryan once again sighed as he shut his eyes. "The problem is that I think you guys were right all along and I didn't even recognize it until now."

He didn't get a reply, but it didn't matter because he was too busy remembering the tiny little things he had felt ever since Dakota just strolled into his life, and looking back on it, he finally saw what they meant. The small looks, the words, the actions, the thoughts... they all added up from the night of the Davis building until the moment he was currently in.

And it all clicked.

He took in a breath and spun back around to match the blind stares he was receiving, the ones of disbelief that Ryan was actually admitting what they accused him of for days on end. 

"I'm just now realizing it, but all of you sons of bitches were right, and I hate you for it."

"Wait, what?" Michael questioned. "You're... you're confessing?!"

"Don't rub it in or I'll make you regret it, Jones."

"N-no! I'm not doing that! I just thought you'd never give in, let alone say it yourself!" he exclaimed while wide eyed. 

"Yeah, you and me both," the taller man grumbled under his breath.

"Well this is great!" A British accent chimed, causing Ryan to shit his eye tight enough that he thought his eyes would squeeze right out of the lids. "You're having a major breakthrough and I'm proud of you, Ry."

"Test me one more time, Gavin, and my fist will break through your thick skull."

Gav gasped. "That's bloody brutal, but I know how prideful you can be, and I'll let this one pass."

Ryan pushed away from the table and headed towards the door, pausing when no one followed him, and he looked back at the men. They blinked a few times, earning a groan from their counterpart at the front of the apartment.

"What?" They asked in sync. 

"We're going to find Jack and Ray."

"Why?"

"Because I know that as soon as I leave, that's what you were gonna do on your own to tell them the news that you just found out. And I'm gonna be there for it so I can make sure that you don't twist my words. So chop chop. Let's go."

Michael and Gavin, though completely excited on the inside, they kept up their little act and glanced at each other before sharing a shrug and heading out the door with Ryan in tow, his face gloomy but his conscious relieved that he finally acknowledged that there was something more at play when it came to Dakota Dayley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again guys, I'm really sorry for being gone so long. But I am still 100 % motivated to this fic and I want to see it get done! Sorry for the shortness, but ahh! Ryan! He's finally developing what his feelings could mean! I'll try to post the next chapter shortly, which should finally start a bunch of Ryan x Dak! Thank you for the love!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So this chapter should FINALLY start building more and more Ryan x Dak, and we're gonna be getting a new threat to take off with our plot. Thanks for all of the love, you guys are great

"Hey, D, check that guy up on the shipping crate," Ray mumbled towards his partner and motioned his head upwards, to which Dakota gave a slight glance in the direction that he was talking about.

The woman, clad in a jacket and jeans to fight the cold, caught sight of a man indeed on top of the top shipping crate in front of them and to their right, and she quickly returned her gaze to where it had previously been. "Good eye, Ray. Looks like Riggins didn't feel so comfortable with this deal after all," she paused a moment. "He look like he's packing anything serious?"

Ray didn't even hesitate to answer. "Nah. He's only carrying a pistol, doesn't look automatic or even semi. Hope they put him up there cause he's got a quick finger at least, cause I wouldn't put my money on him."

He heard Dakota chuckle slightly. 

"Well, if this goes South, I wasn't going to bet my money on him either. Considering the way you shoot a gun, I wouldn't be caught dead voting for anyone else."

"Let's just hope it doesn't get that far."

Ray narrowed his eyes as three men came into his view a football field's length away, stowed away underneath dim lighting and shadows of the towers of shipping crates surrounding the entire industrial yard. They looked both ominous and cliché, standing with one man in the front and the other two staggered behind the first. 

Of course, the man in the middle was Riggins. Cast in the shadows of the night and with the works of tinted lights creeping down onto him, he definitely didn't seem like the type that could pass for a gang leader other than the fact that he gave off the impression of a villain more than anything. Riggins was lanky and tall and even from the distance Ray could see how his eyes narrowed as he and Dakota neared closer. His hairline was receding into his head and it matched the crow's feet that could also be distinctly noticed from his position. And even with that, the man looked too decorous to be standing there, surrounded by men with guns that he could direct at the snap of his bony, calloused fingers.

Ray wasn't even in the slightest worried about the outcome of what could happen next. Tom Riggins was a man that Geoff had been doing business with for a few months now, but he was always pretty sketchy when it came down to it. There were times that he wouldn't return phone calls or that deadlines he set would be set back further and further, or even the fact that no one had ever seen his face before because he always sent his goons to conduct a deal for him. 

But those weren't problems. The crew had dealt with shifty people one too many times and could handle it. 

And even though this was the first time that Riggins decided to show up to this particular meeting for whatever oddball reason, Ray wasn't concerned because he had been in the game long enough to know that he had talent, and he was good at what he did. 

The other thing that eased him was that he had Dakota tagging alongside him, walking forward with a bold confidence and a face full of stone that could shoot anybody down with one glance. Just he fact that she was stood beside him, professional as always and acting like nothing could ever phase her made Ray feel a hundred times more confident in themselves.

If there had been anything that Ray had learned in the past two months with Dakota Dayley in the Fake AH Crew, it's that she was as official and skillful as they come, and she was also one of the best friends he had ever gotten to know in his whole life next to the guys. Dakota fit in so easily from the beginning, so it wasn't a surprise when she ended up quickly learning everything about the crew's inner lives and got in with them. She eagerly became educated on every little detail of all of their lives and involved herself into their affairs too. When a person needed someone to talk to, they went to Dak. When someone wanted to go out and have a crazy night, they went to Dak. When someone wanted to just lounge around and laugh and have a good day off, they went to Dak, and she was incredibly the most bubbly, attentive, caring person that any of them knew. 

It was weird because when they first met her, she was this hardened girl that would giggle occasionally at jokes but stayed alert because she wanted them to know what she was about, and she kept to herself. But even in those days, she would open up little by little, and now it was like she became an open book and everyone was always reading her. She cracked jokes, she told wisdom, she was friendly, and she was finally their friend. She was close with every single person in the crew, and maybe some people even more than the others.

But it wasn't just her becoming their friend, it was how professional Dakota remained. As soon as a job came through for her, Dakota got it done with ease. She left, did the deed, and came back with more money then was originally instated in the job offer, yet no one objected because how could they? This girl would either negotiate a better deal or she would handle her shit when it hit the fan, and that ended up in more cash for the whole that they could all split up amongst one another. 

The woman was a workaholic who took responsibility every single time and did her job at 110%, and when it came to letting loose and cutting back, she knew that all to well too. 

Ray was not only content that he had a high caliber person tagging along with him to help, but also because he was one of the people that had gotten extremely close to her in such a short amount of time. He didn't expect it, it was just something that abruptly happened to both of them (because she always told him how she never thought she'd get that close to him so quick either.) He hadn't liked a person so much so fast unless he counted Tina, but that was the love of his life, and not some criminal that two months earlier he had the intention of killing. From a friend's point of view, it was crazy to think that they both knew each other inside and out and could probably write trivia about each other in a heartbeat and get the answers correct. 

The two were both clowns together. They made everyone laugh and they made themselves laugh. And when it came to seriousness, they were stern on a dime and worked well as a pair, hence the reason they were currently out on a job with only the two of them. It wasn't a shock that because of their skill and their swiftness they took to each other like rubber and glue. And he was thankful that he was so close to someone in the crew that could give him insight on just about anything, or wanted to for that matter. 

Dakota had also taken a liking to Gavin and Michael. Maybe it was because she was young just like those two and Ray, but for some reason, the four of them were so compatible that it wasn't even funny. Dakota would always end up hanging out with them during off days and asking them to go places with her, even places as simple as the grocery store to stock her fridge just because she "wanted some people to come along and make her laugh." Whatever the reason, it didn't matter, because there was no denying that Dakota had become even more close with Gavin and Michael too. 

And while she was close to Jack and was friendly with Geoff, and inseparable from Gavin, Michael, and Ray, it was obvious that the member that Dakota was the most familiar with was undoubtedly Ryan.

Given, ever since Ryan had admitted that he had some kind of feelings towards the woman and told the guys, they were definitely on the lookout every time that he and Dak were together, but even if they weren't so keen on waiting on Ryan to make a move, they would have noticed the obvious way that the two had formed a bond. 

Sure, they lived on the same floor and that gave all the more reason, but everyone saw when the whole crew would go out how Ryan would linger next to Dakota all night and try his hardest (which wasn't very hard because it didn't take much to make her laugh, especially when it came to him) to get her smiling and pay attention to him. They shared snarky remarks often, ridiculously corny jokes, and held conversations when anyone else had made a note to let the chatter die. Ray always noticed that neither of them ever seemed dissatisfied or mad or upset when they were in the same room. Both were always all smiles and all laughter when under the same roof.

And even though Ryan seemed a little too transparent with his feelings to the guys, Dakota almost was evident with hers too, although she probably wouldn't admit it openly. And maybe they could have been wrong. Maybe she was just extremely friendly and everyone was reading into it too much and overreacting.

But Ray thought that didn't seem likely. He knew that the way her eyes would glimpse at him from time to time when she thought no one was watching, just to grin to herself and quickly pull herself away to keep from getting caught was no coincidence. That the way she stayed humble and humorous when she exchanged words with Ryan meant that she was trying to stay under the radar yet impressive at the same time just to gain his eye. That when every time Ryan would throw a quick compliment or innocent statement her way, she would have to conceal the tiny little glow that lit up on her face and pull away from everyone for a split second to regain herself meant she took what he said to heart.

And even though he had never witnessed them flirting, that was almost how they did it: they just stayed close to each other both literally and in the sense of conversation. They just both took up to each other like nothing and were smooth with the other like they had been friends for a while.

Ray had attempted, along with the others, several times to ask Dakota how she felt about Ryan, but like he said, she would never admit it openly. Or she would just blow it off with, "What the hell? No! Can I not just be friends with anyone anymore?! Jesus!" but they never bought it for a second. Whether it was real or not, the crew wanted her feelings to be real and wanted them to be real. 

Ryan and Dak were kind of this experiment to them, one that they loved to talk about and loved to tamper with just because they wanted them to be together. The two were "cute as fuck" and "they couldn't wait for their favorite people to become eloped and have children that their uncles could take care of." Ryan hated hearing that kind of talk from them, and Dakota especially did too. 

Didn't mean that the talk would stop though.

The only thing that concerned Ray a bit was the fact that Dakota had not yet met the Ryan that everyone else knew, the one that he kept hidden away as long as he could before it came out again in a quick blaze. He had no idea how she would react, and to be honest, he was a little afraid because he didn't even have the slightest clue if she would accept the fact that-

Ray's head stopped swimming as soon as he and Dakota reached the three people that they had been walking to for a short while, and he kept his eyes directly onto the man stood in the middle of two goons. Dakota was doing the same, he could tell from his peripheral vision just outside of his glasses reach, and Ray had to stop himself from smiling at just how _dark_ she looked. She was definitely a spitting image of the pictures he had seen of her father all over the TV as a kid, and he didn't ever hesitate to tell her when he observed such things. 

It seemed that everything was still and silent, watching and waiting to see who pulled the next move or who spoke first in the impasse that was currently in the air. Ray searched around a few more times just to make sure that he and Dakota had scoped out the place correctly minutes before. 

There were more men than originally on the shipping crates above them, all dressed with pistols just like the first guy. They tried to hide themselves in the shadows and nooks and crannies of the crates to the best of their ability, but it was gonna take more than that to stay out of his eye. 

Ray then returned his gaze to the trio on floor level, noticing how stiff all three stood. Their bodies were as rigid as rigor mortis, and the way that the two goons on either side of the out of place individual had their hands tucked behind their backs made it even more obvious that they were trying to conceal a weapon in their waistband. 

If Riggins was that scared just to conduct a gun trade, he should have just went ahead and called the police, Ray thought. Or the morgue. Or both.

-

Michael enjoyed having time alone at HQ because being alone was such a rare occasion at that place. 

Don't get him wrong; he loved his crew. He loved his crew probably more than he had ever even loved _himself_ , but sometimes that love was ruined because of the amount of sheer stupidity that all of them possessed. 

Michael wasn't exactly perfect. He was childish and yelled too loud and gloated and was a complete dick at some points, but even with all of that, he was still more sane than anyone in the Fake AH Crew combined and that was saying a lot. In all honesty, he probably would have been more fit of a leader than Geoff was- hell, all of them admitted it at one point, particularly at a time where Michael was babysitting the shit out of everyone else for some unsurprising reason. 

But even with that, Michael knew his role and respected it and was definitely a valuable part to the team as much as anyone else. So having time alone at a place that was usually filled with chaos, booze, loudness, and adult-children, that was something that Michael always looked forward to.

It wasn't ever much, but it was something, and as long as he got to be in his own peaceful, quiet void without the rest of the crew deliberately ruining it just by being them, he was content. 

Geoff had left to go accompany Griffon somewhere, Jack went to go scout out some kind of location for the next heist that still hadn't been mentioned much to anyone in a good while, Ray and Dak were on a job, Ryan went out too, and Gavin was at God-knows-where doing God-knows-what. 

Michael didn't remember much of what his friend had told him, just mainly, "I'm going out, my boi, don't wait up on me, blah, blah, blah." And he didn't care where he was at the time, rather him be out than directly by Michael's side and bugging him constantly every twenty seconds about a little irrelevant thing or even nothing at all. Because if anyone could find nothing to talk about and make a big fucking deal out of it, Gavin was the person who could do so in a heartbeat and make everyone annoyed because of it.

Whether it was a question so dumbed down that no one in the room could even make sense of it or whether it was a serious topic that became way too elaborate/misleading, Gavin was usually the culprit behind it, and that made it all the more worse.

But either way, Michael couldn't deny the fact that Gavin was his best friend, and no matter how annoying he could be, Michael was absolutely tied down for his friend whenever the Brit needed him, and vice versa. Their friendship was tighter than anything anyone could ever break, and it had been that way since the two met properly for the first time when they joined the crew. 

Stretching his arms out over his head, Michael walked away from the bar resting silently in the lobby towards one of the lounging chairs beside the pool table. He plopped himself down and squirmed around to get comfortable, before finally settling with his legs dangling over the arm of the chair and his head full of light curls propped against the other arm. It didn't take long for a smile to emerge on his face as a sigh overcame him and escaped his mouth, signaling all of the relief that was instantly coursing throughout his body. 

The man closed his eyes for a brief minute, everything in place, nothing astray or wrong around him, the walls within HQ completely and utterly quiet, and all seemed still.

Until the front doors slammed and footsteps approached rapidly to, _Oh are you fucking kidding me_ , right where Michael was sitting, and a voice interrupted all of the relaxing silence that Michael was soaking up to that point. 

"Hey, I've got a question," the voice stated, and it didn't sound British at least, so Michael was thankful for that. 

The figure in the chair groaned and shut his eyes even tighter, refusing to open them and let go of the peaceful moment he had been having for the past period of time. 

"Can it not wait? I was kind of fucking busy," Michael replied with distaste residing in his voice.

He heard a familiar boyish chuckle, then a pause that followed with, "It's about Dakota."

Michael immediately shot up when he realized just who was talking, and upon opening his eyes, he couldn't help but smile at the person who was stood directly in front of him, standing tall and slack compared to the slight nervousness on their face.

"You've come to the right place, Ryan, even though I'm a little pissed that you got in the way of my day off from you guys. But you know what? Fuck it, that's alright. Your love life is more important to me. Now what's on your mind?"

-

"I'm a little surprised that that just went as well as it did," Ray voiced over the sound of the radio that was playing at a medium volume throughout the entire of the car that he was in. His eyes searched next to him from the driver's seat, landing on Dakota, who sat loosely in the passenger seat, tapping her fingers onto her leg to the rhythm of the song while lightly lip-syncing the words. 

The woman nodded and she noted just how close HQ was as the vehicle neared the division of town that possessed their building. 

"Hey, couldn't have done it without you there, Ray," she smiled. "Riggins couldn't afford to let our deal go. He might be a paranoid old crow, but with us there, we made him see that life was impossible without being acquainted with the Fake AH Crew."

Ray smirked. "You did all the talking, I was just there to put the pressure on them. They couldn't handle the kind of shit I was packing."

Dakota couldn't conceal the laugh that foamed out our her mouth. She shook her head, bouncing her dark hair every which way. 

"That is true, but there's no way that Riggins and his guys only listened to me. You spoke too, and we're a team effort here."

"God, Dak, chill. I was just trying to be funny but you had to go all sentimental on me."

"Sorry, I'm just a bummer sometimes. You know that."

"Yeah, damn straight."

The two friends exchanged a small laugh before giving one another a part way glance, turning their attention back towards the road ahead of them. There wasn't much left, they were already practically back at HQ, and to be honest, Dakota was glad. She felt exhausted, mainly because she had been out nonstop doing all kinds of jobs in the past week and she felt like it had been a while since she genuinely rested. Going home and climbing into bed and drifting off to sleep for fourteen hours sounded beyond amazing at that moment. 

The car came slowly to a halt as soon as it reached the parking lot in front of their destination, and both people looked around to realize that all of the cars that were gone before they left earlier were all back, sitting all collectively next to each other like a cult. 

Dakota couldn't help but look over them all to make sure that Ryan's Zentorno was amongst the line of vehicles, then quickly caught her self when she noticed what she had done almost instinctively.

 _Don't start now, Dak,_ she pleaded to herself.

On her left, Ray was getting out of the car, and she took that as her cue and followed. The immediate roar of voices and shouting greeted the two, and they both entered the double doors, unfazed by the loudness and instant amount of crazy that hit them as they walked inside of HQ.

The two stopped in the middle of the lobby to take a quick glance at their colleagues, who were practically all bouncing off of the walls and parading themselves around, full of booze while chasing one another or throwing things at each other that they probably shouldn't have been throwing, like darts and bottles.

"Home sweet home," Ray sucked in air and let it out, walking away from Dakota's side just to find the bar and begin making himself a drink as if it were the normal routine, which it basically really was. Dakota would have joined him immediately, right back next to him and tossing down shots like it was any other night of the week, but she was completely drained. She had been up since seven in the morning, going over stuff from all of the jobs she had done in the past few days and then some, then going all around the place for whoever was the next person that needed her assistance, then going with Ray to the gig that they had returned from minutes earlier. She felt like she was running on empty, and she needed to go to the comfort of her apartment for just a few minutes to get in a peace of mind. 

Dakota was quick to avert the commotion in the lobby as she made her way to the elevator, but not before dodging a threatening looking Michael who was chasing Gavin while the latter screamed in bird-like noises. She made her way into the doors and hit her floor button, stepping off of the platform as soon as it opened back up on her destination. 

The woman began to walk towards her door, ready for some R and R, but just as she reached the door and put her hand on the knob, she heard a voice beside her.

"So, you and Ray had a pretty successful job tonight I heard."

The voice was almost too relieving to Dak- it kind of just enveloped her in its own way because as soon as the person spoke, she knew exactly who it was. Although she was tired and beyond ready to just crawl into bed and die for a few days, the voice lifted her from out of that mindset and comforted her more than she would have liked. 

_God, you really need to stop doing this, Dak,_ she thought. 

Dakota turned around and smiled instantly at the sight of Ryan standing before her, slack and casual in jeans and a white t-shirt, his hair tousled slightly and his mouth pulled into an elegant smirk. The light from the windows on the level silhouetted his outline perfectly, and Dak had to pull herself away from staring a little too much. He just always looked good to her, no matter what he was doing at the time, and she hated herself for admitting it because she admitted it a little too often. 

"Yeah, I guess you could say me and Ray make a pretty good team," she replied, earning a nod from her counterpart.

"There's never been any doubt in that. Guess that's why Geoff always pairs you two together now, ever since the Baker job."

"I guess that was a pretty big deal," Dak grinned delightfully.

"Of course it was a big deal!" Ryan protested, his face lighting up even more. "We couldn't pull off that job for weeks and then you two barged in there and did whatever the hell it is you two do, and no you guys are like the Dynamic Duo of AH!"

The two stood there for a moment, smiling at one another as if they didn't even know how to frown, the light from the outside world reflecting into the windows and influencing the colors that scattered across both of their bodies. The occasional plane would pass by, blinking lights flashing through the night, but neither of them paid attention as they were together in that hallway, making small talk that seemed insignificant but not meaningless. 

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Dakota cleared her throat and asked, "So, you're not down there partying with everyone else? Seems like you're missing out on a good time."

"Well, when you watch the same people get drunk every night for years, it finally kicks in that maybe you should go sleep it off instead of kill your brain cells for the hundredth night in a row, you know?" Ryan chuckled lightly, but as Dakota looked upon him with her eyes so blue, he sighed mentally and prepared himself for what he was about to say next. "But, uh... I was really looking for you."

Dakota furrowed her brows, a little puzzled.

"Any specific reason?"

Ryan became nervous internally all of a sudden, thinking back to the conversation he had with Michael earlier in the day. 

_"Just talk her up man, be yourself! You've never failed with it before, what's gonna happen now?" he had said._

_"What do you mean?" Ryan questioned his friend quizzically, earning an eye roll from the man before him and a loud groan._

_"Dude, you two never miss a beat! She's always laughing at what you have to say, she always has an interest every time you're talking. Just act normal and you'll be fine!"_

"Well, uh, actually, yeah," Ryan hesitate for a while, making sure that Dakota was still invested in what he had to say. When he was content that he had her attention, he continued steadily. "I was wondering if you wanted to go out, just us two for dinner soon. But, only on the terms of business."

The Dayley woman was a little stunned to hear those words coming from his mouth- or maybe she was utterly excited at the same time? Either way, she didn't expect Ryan to come out with such a bold move, let alone asking her out on a date. She had no idea how to react to him, to herself, but when she realized that she was taking too long to reply, she remained calm as always no matter her internal state and answered him.

"Wow, Haywood, you're asking me on a date? Never thought I'd see the day."

"Hey, like I said, strictly business. You have the scout's honor," he stated, his hand raising up as if he was truly a boy scout who was inciting an honor code. Dakota couldn't help but smile from ear to ear as he stood there, arm raised and looking smug yet kind of wishy washy at the same time. He was nervous and she could tell, but he still played it off well, and if she wasn't so good at reading people, it would have gone unnoticed. But she could still sense it was there and it was honestly adorable.

And it wasn't exactly like she was opposed to going on a date with him. From the first time that they met, she was glued to him; his eyes, the mask, the voice. And then when they met again but underneath his disguise it was his face, his personality, his style, his skill. All of it jumbled together every time that they saw each other and all of his features just snowballed into one, big, intriguing thing that she couldn't seem to get out of her head.

She was always thinking about him, one way or another, and she couldn't deny that she was a little too involved in him. The little butterflies she got while being in his presence was a dead give away, but it was also how the others always caught on to her so easily. The glances, the statements, the flirting, everything. Everything that she had been pushing into the back of her mind in the past month that she tried to convince herself wasn't real, while she stood in front of him at that point in time, it all hit her hard because she now knew that she had been lying to herself. 

Dakota did have feelings for the man, and while they weren't exactly developed, they had always been there from the start, and she couldn't run from them anymore. So why not face them instead?

"Well, no fighting you there," Dakota stayed confident. "Since this 'business date' hasn't been given a time yet, how does tonight sound?"

Ryan almost keeled over from the anticipation and then the final answer that he was currently hearing. She _actually_ said yes.

"If you're sure you're not too tired."

"Nah, trust me, I'm fine. I'm wide awake now."

-

The night air was definitely cold enough to freeze over hell, but it didn't matter, because in Los Santos, there was always more pressing matters to be attended to, and that was guaranteed. There was never a dull day or night in the city because it was too busy of a place and far too large that nothing could not go on. Regular towns, smaller ones outside of the city limits like Sandy Shores and Paletto Bay and everything in between, they were nearly always silent. But not Los Santos. There was just too much business that needed attention.

Business was never scarce in the city. Whether that meant "normal" jobs such as accounting, retail, marketing, hell, even restaurants, they all required the presence of business. Not to mention the more underground lines of work, such as the mobs and the drug circles and the smuggling and whatever it may have been- all partners with business. Without business, much of nothing could get done, and perhaps the city would even cease to exist.

Los Santos would not have been the bustling metropolis that it was without the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

So not even the complete frigidness of Mother Nature could expel the powers of business away for a night, no matter how demeaning and undermining or even how righteous the work may be. The below freezing temperatures (even though it was no where near below freezing, the wind just made it seem like it was) couldn't stop anyone that was on their mission, and it didn't. Because it was business as usual.

Just like it was "business" for the two members of the Fake AH Crew to go out to a decent little Italian place, both clad in attire that was above the line of casual. They looked like regular people, the man holding the door open for the woman as soon as they reached the restaurant, both talking it up like they had known each other for a while. They blended in, looked like any other couple who would sit together and order food and converse while waiting for their meals because it was what the rest of the world did. 

They were both just two people, a guy and a girl that no one really paid any mind to because they were just trying to enjoy one another for a few hours. Two normal, good-looking people, but that didn't really mean anything because LS was polluted in attractive and decent looking human beings because it was just one of the many parts that made the town unique, so they weren't in any way abnormal, or standing out from the rest of the crowd.

And maybe they wouldn't have stood out if Agent Dawson Lahey wouldn't have spotted them exiting a building suspected to be a hideout for a federal enemy against the state. 

It was touch and go really. Lahey didn't even know if the address that he had would even be a good lead to the crew that he had been assigned to gather intel on, but when he got to the used to be apartment buildings, he watched from across the street in his car as these two persons left, and instead of staking out the place like he originally intended, he followed them and ended up tagging them the entire way back to the eating establishment he found himself at currently. 

And even then it wasn't hard enough evidence to prove that he was indeed following members of the Fake AH Crew that he and the rest of the agents under his supervision had been getting little information on for the past few months. They were so low key that it was nearly impossible to get anything solid on them, but they were just big enough to finally get a file gathered, but still, the FIB knew little about the crew and they had nothing at all to really start trying to take them down for.

So Lahey thought it would be a good idea to run the plates on the newer SUV that the two had taken, and when it came back that the plates were void and actually were never registered, meaning the car was stolen and given new, fake plates, he thought it was best to stay and tail the couple for the rest of the evening, even if it got him nothing but the faces of possible suspects of the crew. That was enough of a win to him considering that this crew had been under the radar for as long as they had been around, so any kind of intel was going to be a big help. 

While the hours passed and it got colder, Lahey almost fell asleep multiple times as he watched the man and the woman through binoculars, scoping them out as they laughed and ate and talked. He almost gave up a few times and went back to headquarters due to the sheer length of the dinner date, but finally, after what seemed like forever to him, the suspects got up and left, heading back to their car, which would give him a chance to tail them again one last time before leaving. When their lights flicked on and the car pulled out of the parking lot and started to head down the street, Lahey ignited his own engine and carefully pulled out, nearly four cars behind the one that he was trailing.

His hand reached the knob of the radio and turned it down so he could focus on following the SUV that was now making a left turn, causing him to put on his blinker and signal left when he got to the turn. Wherever they swerved, he swerved too, and wherever they turned, he followed at a safe distance that wouldn't give away his mission.

It was all going so smoothly, so care free, until at one point after ten minutes of driving and scoping the car, at yellow light at an intersection that was seconds away from turning red, the SUV kicked into gear and dove into the intersection just as the light turned, causing Lahey to slam on his breaks just to avoid getting flattened by the oncoming of cars from his left and his right. The car skidded to a halt and narrowly missed a civilian's vehicle that sped past, blaring it's horn and supporting an arm with a middle finger up that quickly disappeared into the inner parts of downtown. 

The SUV that the agent had been following got away unscathed, speeding away into the blur of the world ahead of him.

"Dammit," Lahey mumbled, remembering the make of the car and the body and whatever he for sure recalled. He also remembered the faces of the perps inside of it: tall man with dirty blond hair, blue eyes, woman with black hair, blue eyes. He replayed their faces over and over again and whenever he was confident that he knew their features by heart, he waited for the light to turn green before easing on the pedal and heading back for the office.

"Can't wait to go back to the empty fucking file and add nothing useful to it," the agent muttered to himself, suddenly wishing that he could go back in time and beat his high school friend into a pulp for ever suggesting he become a federal agent.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah! FINALLY the plot is starting to segway in! Enjoy, guys.

Dakota's phone vibrated in her jeans pocket for a split second, then as if it had never even alerted, it silenced.

She didn't think anything of it until it happened again, causing her to reach into the denim to pull out the smartphone.

She had two unread messages. One from a number that wasn't saved, but she didn't know what it said because she turned off the setting that showed messages on the lock screen, and another was from someone that she had been texting pretty frequently for the past week: Ryan.

It wasn't like they never texted before. It'd be the occasional, "Hey, 'boss man' needs you for some running through," or "You forgot to lock your door, you're lucky I don't rob you 'cause I am a criminal after all." Small things like that that didn't really mean anything other than friendly intentions. But ever since their "business date" as Ryan kept calling it and refused to say it was more than anything else just to piss Dakota off, the two hadn't stopped keeping connection with each other through cellular communication. 

They couldn't stop even if they wanted to. It even got to the point where they would be in the same room and if they wanted to say something to one another without the others hearing, a little "ping" would resonate through the air, followed by either Dak or Ryan chuckling, and it would just keep going from there.

If they were inseparable before, they were starting to get conjoined at the hip even more than Dakota was with the younger members of the crew, and that was saying a lot considering that little friend group did every little thing together. And to make matters worse, Dakota was starting to feel more for the man with every word they said to each other, and she completely hated the fact that she was getting so involved.

She definitely hated the fact that she agreed to more "business dates," particularly one in a few days when they were both free and available. She was just making it too easy.

Dakota shook her head and looked down at the phone in her hands, and even though she was being completely biased just a few seconds ago, she couldn't stop the smile that flowed off of her lips when reading the text from Ryan.

_Just an FYI, I look better than you in a dress, so don't be surprised when that's what I show up in. My legs crave attention._

She had to stop herself from laughing before replying something about, _I wouldn't doubt you. With legs of your caliber, you should wear the shorts that I like to lounge around in. Then you'll be getting catcalled every which way and I'll have to drag you off of the streets._

The two had been talking about what they were gonna wear to their next occurrence together, and Ryan insisted on wearing a dress, but Dakota probably had been insisting it more than he was. She would have killed to see him in one of her dresses while walking the sidewalks of LS, but maybe that was another story for another time.

Before stashing the phone, she continued on to the next message that she got, from the unknown number. It wasn't actually particularly unknown, she knew exactly who the number was even though it changed frequently according to the person's very unrelenting paranoia and conspiracies, and while it was annoying when she first started to do business with them, Dakota actually got acutely used to not keeping their number saved. 

Her eyes scraped the screen that read, _Haven't heard from you in a while. Thought you were dead but looked up your GPS and it keeps moving around, so unless you're an imposter, you just don't want to conduct anymore business I'm guessing._

Dakota's thumbs quickly dragged along the glass of the phone as she replied, _Been busy. Found a crew. If I need you, I know where to find you._

The response came seconds after her own text, and she scoffed as soon as she got it.

_Maybe I should have just kept assuming you were dead. Fine. But don't contact me too soon, seeing as how you don't need me anymore._

Dakota shoved her phone back into her pocket and shook her head, unfazed by the brief conversation she had with her source. They had always been an immature hermit that needed all of their dirty work to be done by outside forces (meaning Dakota) and she hated being talked down to like a child by such a person, but she had been working with them for quite the while, and it earned her a lot of cash. 

She even had been given crazy opportunities through said source, such as working with some of the most notorious criminals in modern day time, and the work was always good enough to draw her back, no matter how much of an ass the source was. And there had been times, multiple times at that, where she had nearly given the son of a bitch a greeting with a chair, but she decided off of it at the last second because the pay was too good and in all honesty, they had gotten Dakota back into the lifestyle once Tobias passed.

She loathed even thinking that she could thank them, but she knew that she had to because they had put her on a pretty good landing strip for another takeoff.

_Something's not right._

The city was tucked away beyond the grassy hills before where Dakota stood, barely peering out from the peak of the mountainous bumps as if silently watching the woman, waiting to see what she was going to do next. The air outside was fresher than what she had tasted while compared to the overpopulated, dimly polluted air that she always had to breathe while in Los Santos. 

Birds were chirping, cars' engines would hum or zoom by depending on how fast it was going, the occasional breeze would flicker through the open sky and caress her skin gently, then fade away as the sun blistered back down onto the top of her head. There wasn't much to see in the spot that she was in except for the continuing hills and the miles of road laid down in the midst of them. 

And even as scenic, serene, and peaceful as the day was, not to mention completely compelling because this had been the first time in months that Dak had escaped the inner city, she couldn't shake the feeling that all was not well.

Maybe it was just the way that that little bit of psychic whatever that she had inside of her, the one that let her read people as if they were opened inside out right in front of her, and how her gut kept telling her that there was something, _someone_ that wasn't supposed to be there. Maybe it was the lack of food she had eaten in the day because she had to wake up early, meet with Geoff and Jack on the top floor to talk about her assignment for the day which was going to Tongva Hills to scope out a brand spanking new bank in the area for the heist that no one knew anything about, and that caused her to skip out on breakfast. Not to mention she also missed lunch besides a bag of chips from the convenient store on the way to Tongva because of the endless drive.

But for some reason, as she stood there outside of the bank in its parking lot, Dakota thought- knew- that there was something not normal.

And she didn't exactly know it, but she was absolutely right.

A person, _the_ person from the other night who had tailed her and Ryan, whom caused Ryan to erratically drive the car on the way back to HQ just to lose them, was lurking in the distance of the shadows of the trees plopped all over the rolling hills. And he had been there the whole time that she had, following her for a good while once she had just left the city limits of Los Santos.

Dakota had no idea yet, but Lahey was definitely all up in sorts about the crew, becoming obsessed with them the moment that he watched those headlights zoom in and out of traffic away from him the other night, and he didn't plan on letting up any time soon.

The man quickly ducked behind a sturdy oak tree as Dakota's gaze entered the tree line out beyond where the bank's parking lot rolled off, endless stretches of rolling hills and nature lush at her eye's view. Even with the creepy feeling prodding at her like a thorn- actually, like a railroad spike- impaled in her side, she sighed while checking her phone one last time, replying back to Ryan's message, then headed away from her car to inspect the building that sat dormant before her body.

The bank was closed that day. Some kind of patriotic "duty" that that certain chain of bank decided they owed to their people, meaning that on Sundays, they weren't open for business. Blamed it on the Lord's day and all, but it was just a scam to get the more self-righteous/religious types to come barreling in because they were "purer" than any other competition in the area. 

Whoever bought it was either a complete idiot, or they seriously lied to themselves thinking that going to some religiously (fake) minded bank was actually gonna help with their entrance into the golden gates.

Dakota rolled lazily off of the classic muscle car, immediately checking for cameras of any kind in any place of the infrastructure. It took all but a minute to find a small block box perched on the top of the building, grazing slowly from left to right to scan the entire vicinity of the parking lot. The woman took her chance when the camera was faced the opposite direction and slid up against the brick wall, then realizing that if she stayed on the sidewalk that she would be out of range for the camera was too high to be focused on the area directly beneath it. She casually got off of the wall and inspected the layout and design of the bank.

The place was covered from roof to ground with gray bricks, something that looked way too familiar to cinder blocks with the chiseled rock and hard exterior. The bricks stretched all the way around on every side and covered every single inch with nothing more than a grayscale that was kind of harsh on the eyes. If it weren't for the dark, oak roofing that found its way into a triangular shape to match that of a house, then the aesthetic would be worse. But the homely feeling wasn't enough to stop the prison vibe.

The building itself was much larger in height and width than what a traditional bank would normally size up to, and the sheer size alone made Dakota wonder if there was even going to be a possible way to pull off a heist in such a monstrous venue. It towered among the trees that surrounded the perimeter and topped well over the majority of foliage in a three mile radius. 

There were really no access points except for the obvious point of entry, the front door, and large, spaced out windows in pairs that almost completely scaled up the walls and seemed way too symmetrical even for the neatest person. She didn't see any doors from the side that she drove up on, and as she started to make her way around the sides while sticking directly to the sidewalk- as she could tell that there was a camera for every wall, set up to face the roads that came to meet the bank- there were no other ways to get in. It wasn't until she came across the back, adjacent from a strip mall that was probably a football fields length away and across another road, that she noticed a back door. 

She felt that it was odd that there were only two doors to the whole outside of the place, but she figured it was just simpler to have two doors that accessed and processed everything that went in and out, and it was probably easier to monitor too. Not exactly ideal for a heist as there weren't too many escape routes, but Dakota decided to keep looking around to see if there was something extra that could make a getaway smoother than just trying to fit out of two doorways. 

And as her eyes started to scan around, that's when she noticed a peculiar little oddity sticking up from the ground, barely visible but completely obvious: a manhole.

And the best part?

It was just out of the camera's reach as it too rested silently, closely to the sidewalk and underneath the eye of the eagle. 

Dakota, without hesitation, scattered over to the manhole and picked up the lid, moving it to the side. Sure enough, there was a ladder, in tact enough for use, and if it came to dropping down the hole because climbing was too slow, the drop didn't seem far enough to injure anyone, a jump that everyone could make because it was probably eight feet, tops. If she could just get a hold of the layout of the sewage tunnels and get a good look at them, the getaway might actually go easily planned and well enough that any law enforcement could get turned around.

The idea was perfect, and Dak had to let Geoff know.

The job was short, and it was too long of a drive just for ten minutes of observation, but she definitely thought something good had come out of it after discovering that sewage hole. That one little detail could save them a lot of trouble when it came down to it, and she was ready to head back and share her findings.

As Dakota dragged the lid back onto the hole, her stomach took a turn as if a presence was closing in on her. She quickly put the heavy metal back, then got to her feet, stealing another glance around her at the trees to understand just exactly why her senses had been acting so out of whack for the amount of time that she had been here.

It was short, hardly actually noticeable, but Dakota knew better when she saw a figure that was looming quickly duck behind a trunk of wood, and that was all it took for her to dart back the way she came, sprinting on the sidewalk to stay out of the camera's view, but barreling as fast as she could to the car. There was no doubt in her mind anymore that someone was watching her the entire time, and she was willing to bet money that it was the person from the other night that followed her and Ryan.

By the time she got back to her car, her keys were already in her hand as well as her phone that was dialing Ryan's number. She would have called Geoff, but Ryan's contact was right there in her face when she opened it due to the amount of times that two had been texting recently, and her thumb carried itself away and took it upon itself to dial him. Dak unlocked the car physically with her key, placing the phone to her ear, then dove inside once the door was open and stuck the key deep into the ignition. The phone rang continuously, and the device rang so much that she was worried he wasn't going to answer.

The woman reversed the car and then put it in drive, rearing out of there so fast that it almost gave her whiplash. Finally, the ringing stopped and a voice instead replaced it.

"Hey, I was just about to text you back, but I didn't think I was taking _that_ long to-"

"Ryan, no it's not about that," she panted, one hand on the top of the wheel, guiding her down streets and turns to find a way back to the highway fast. Her piercing blue eyes kept darting to the rearview to search for any kind of sign of the person who she had seen, but so far there was nothing. "I was on the job, and someone was watching me. I think it was the same person from the other day."

"Wait, what?" Ryan's voice came concerned now, almost worried, and Dakota slowed her breath while he spoke. "Are you okay? Did you have to end the job early? What happened?"

"I'm lucky that I was about to leave because I got everything I came for, it was a short build, but then I caught a glimpse. I had a feeling when I got there, but I didn't go with it. I'm fine, I just have no clue if I'm being followed because I hightailed it out of there. If there's any way they can keep up with my car and how I'm driving right now, it'll be a miracle."

Ryan paused, having no idea what to really say because Dakota was hours out of reach, so trying to come to her aid was out of the picture.

"If you need me to meet you halfway, I can."

Dak answered quickly. "No! No, I'm okay, I've got it under control. I just need to get back. If they saw everything I was doing, they might not have pieced together exactly what I'm trying to do, so I think we're okay."

"Are you sure?" Ryan knew that she could handle herself, without a doubt, but it didn't stop him from getting anxious when it came to her safety.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. I just needed to call you." His heart fluttered when he heard her say it, and he mentally cursed at himself for it. "But I think it's time I call an old friend, Ryan. This is starting to get too suspicious, and we need to eliminate all threats. I'm not letting one dumbass jeopardize our heist."

"I totally understand you, but what exactly do you think could be happening here? I mean, are we talking rival gang, feds, some people we pissed off?"

She sighed and took a sharp left, returning back to the highway that she had been on earlier in the morning when coming to Tongva. Ryan shifted from one foot to the other, switching his phone to his other ear while resting his elbow on his other arm for support. 

"I don't even know," Dakota breathed. "But I don't think it's a coincidence at all. I think that when I get back, we need to get Geoff and Jack and tell them what's going on. Maybe they'll think more about the other night now that this happened. All I know is this isn't right, I can feel it."

Ryan took another moment to collect his thoughts. He thought about where the others were at, and when all of their locations drew blank to him, he blinked and blew out some air. 

"Okay, I'm gonna find out where they are, and I'll let them know what happened. You said something about contacting someone? An old friend."

"Yeah, more like the person who's been my insider for a while now, the reason I don't have a background anymore and a person who got me some jobs before I crewed up with you guys. They're kind of... iffy, but there has to be a way to get through to them. I'm on my way back so I guess we'll figure all of that out when I get there," Dakota tried her best to sound smooth and uninterested as possible, but to be honest, she didn't want to drag in her source to all of this mess. They were already a crabby asshole when it came to regular jobs and stick ups and what have you, but this? It was probably only going to get worse and she was just about to pull in someone who was at a fifty/fifty chance on not helping. 

But there was no way she was just gonna let this escalate and not bring in assistance if it ever did. She had no choice but to consider.

"Alright, well, uhm, I guess I'll see you when you get here. Please, don't get taken by some random asshole because it would kind of suck," the man said almost in a whiny, mocking voice. Dakota couldn't help but chuckle at his childishness and fake way to show his actual caution about her well being.

"You've got it, Haywood, thanks for the heart felt goodbye."

"Just shut up and hurry back, we've still gotta discuss this dress thing after your little stalker gets dealt with."

-

Before Dakota could even get into the lobby, the doors burst open from the inside just as she was speed walking up, and out came literally every single member of the crew, not just Geoff and Jack and Ryan as she had initially expected, but those three were definitely at the front of the pack. Ray, Gavin, and Michael were right behind them, eyes wide and ears ready to listen to the whole mess of what was actually going on. They looked like teenagers, flocking to a fight that was forming in the school courtyard, and honestly to her it didn't feel much different.

She took a breath and met the men halfway, leader at the front of the pack and everyone else behind him, but that didn't stop Ryan from instantly breaking through the formation and going to Dakota's side. 

He put his hands on her shoulders and forced his light, sparkling eyes to her own orbs of blue, to which she almost forgot what she was about to say because his eyes always put her into a trance, ever since the night that their sets of eyes met even though his were underneath a mask. They were still as haunting yet inviting as that day.

"Did anyone follow you here?" he asked immediately, to which she shook her head. He wanted to ask if she was okay, if he had done anything to her, but he already knew the answer and he didn't want to annoy her.

The two looked at each other for a moment, and a kind of tension settled into the air as they both felt the feeling that that moment should have been filled with something else, something different other than looking at each other intently, but when there was a snicker from the back of the pack, Ryan noticed that he still had his hands on her, and he let them slide off before taking a step back to where he was even with Geoff.

_God, maybe I should have kissed her. Or hugged her. Or something, shit, I don't know. What am I saying?_

"You're absolutely sure you weren't followed?" Geoff questioned kind of cynically, but she knew that he was just trying to be thorough. She nodded once and spoke for herself.

"Yeah, I'm sure. There's a reason I got here an hour earlier rather than an hour later like usual, it's not just 'cause I'm a 'reckless driver.'"

Geoff ran a hand through his hair and then over his face, pulling his lip for a split second before letting it flop back to his mouth. He looked like he had been stressing the whole time that Dakota was on her way back, with his eyes dull and hooded and his hair ruffled to a point where it seemed his hand had been through it at least a hundred times in the past two hours. But that was a good thing. Maybe he would take this more seriously than he did the incident from the other night, which was brushing it off and making a joke about, "Stop trying to file a complaint just because your little date wasn't as good as you thought it would be, Dak."

Jack took a step forward as Geoff slowly composed himself on the inside, and he put a hand up as he talked.

"So you think that this is the same person who attempted to follow you from the other night?"

"Yeah, I seriously would bet my life on it. This shit just doesn't happen randomly, you know?" Dakota replied. Jack agreed.

"And Ryan said there's a person you're gonna ask for help, an inside source? I didn't even know you had one."

"I've worked with them since my dad died. They helped me get back on top, got me a few jobs and stick ups, even let me work with some of the most notorious bank robbers right now that you're all probably familiar with. Put me out as a mercenary after that so I'd stay busy and after I joined the crew, I kind of just dropped contact 'cause I didn't really need them anymore," she hesitated before going on. "Do you guys know the people who robbed the Union Depository a while back?"

The guys' eyes lit up on word of it, and Gavin chimed in before she could continue. "Of course we do! We bloody envied those guys when it was all said and done! I mean they hit the most unhittable bank in the states!"

Dakota grinned. "I've worked with them. Got their numbers saved in my phone, know their home addresses, even partied with them a few times. All because of my inside source."

"Bullshit," Michael called, arms slack and crossed against his chest. He loved to her Dak's stories as much as everyone else, but this one he wasn't buying. "How do we know you're not lying?"

"I'm a lot of things, Michael, but you know I don't lie to you," she stated, and when he still wasn't convinced, she shrugged. "I know their names, Michael, I've seen their faces. Michael, Trevor, and Franklin. Middle aged white men and a younger black man. Always bickering but they're family. And I've seen it all because of one person, and I think this person can help us with our problem if it even is one."

"Who?" the question was in perfect harmony among all six men, all truly intrigued in what she had to say.

"A paranoid man by the name of Lester Crest. You may have never heard of him, but he's been all around and seen things we haven't. Grumpy ass, but he wants the job done more than anything, and he's the real deal. I've never seen anyone hack like him, he can get into things I didn't think was ever possible. He's the reason that when you guys ran that little background check on me, there was nothing there."

Jack mumbled a, "Called it," as she went on.

"It's hard to tell what's actually going on right now, but I really think he's our only shot to find out the answer."

"And you really think that this man, who set you up to work with practically fucking heroes in our lives, will actually help us, like get us intel and stuff and give insight?" Ray asked, seeing on his friend's face that she was actually kind of wishy washy about asking for this guy to help.

Dakota didn't answer right away, but instead sheepishly grabbed one of her elbows and looked from face to face of everyone. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure yet. It might be hard to get him on board," Dakota's gaze flickered to Geoff, whose own expression wasn't convinced, and she interjected herself. "But I'm telling you, I really don't think we have another option if we want this heist to be on way. If we want to move forward, our next step needs to be contacting Lester."

Geoff observed Dakota. She was being definitely genuine, and so far she had been nothing but amazing to the crew and did well in all of her individual and partner paired jobs. The woman was kind of like a godsend and even though he didn't exactly know it when they first met, he had a feeling, and that feeling made him randomly ask her to become a part of the family that he worked so hard to bring together, and getting asked to join wasn't an easy feat. 

He had to at least consider that maybe this was the only choice. He wasn't calling off the heist. It hadn't even begun yet, and there was no way in hell it was going to end before it even started. It had been far too long that they had even done a heist, and some jerk off wasn't stopping it now. 

Maybe calling Lester truly was the only thing they had to do, and it didn't take long to realize that Dakota's genuineness wasn't for nothing.

Geoff slowly glanced down, then back up at the woman before him. His lids were less hooded, more focused than when she had first shown up minutes before. 

"Can we call him now? Put him on speaker or something?"

Dakota didn't hesitate to pull out her phone and go to the text message she had received earlier, pressing the icon of a phone and then placing the device onto speaker. She went to her car, putting the phone on the hood, and if she was a trainer herding lions with a piece of meat in her hand, the crowd of crew members followed her instantly, surrounding the phone as it rang on the hood.

The men were still in awe about her story. First her father, now she had worked with the people that took on the Union Depository? What kind of woman was she, an expendable?! The story had sounded a little far fetched, but she was right. She had no reason to lie to them whatsoever. 

And to think that the person she was calling was the man who set it all up.

All of a sudden, the phone stopped ringing, and a voice picked up.

"I don't know who you are or why you're calling, but I can fucking sue your ass for harassment and-"

"Lester!" Dakota yelled sternly. "Whoa, calm the hell down before you give yourself angina, you paranoid bastard. It's Dak, you texted me today."

A sickening cough came from the other end of the line, followed by the same voice, just more crabby and less analytical. "I know whose number this is, I had to make sure you weren't a government fuck trying to bring me in." He took a moment before abruptly asking, "What exactly do you want? I told you not to come running to me anytime soon."

"Yeah, well, something popped up," she replied. "We need your help. There's something going on and I don't think it's very good."

"Who's we? You and your new crew? Why should I help you?"

Dakota sighed, palming her face in utter irritation. "Because of all the shit I've done for you in the past, you cranky old bat. Most of those jobs were for your doing, not mine, and the only reason I got paid is because I had to fucking ask you a billion times to. Don't act like I never did anything for you, Lest. Or Michael. Or Trevor, or Franklin."

"Well, to be fair, I never forced you to help, and neither did those guys. If I remember correctly, you were the one who came to me for work."

"And if I remember correctly, Lester, you're the one who gave me work and then some, asking me to do your dirty work and then sending me off to people and jobs like I was nothing but an errand girl. We can do this all day. I can even call Mike and get him on this call, too, if you wanna get technical and-"

"Jesus!" the hermit interrupted, and Dakota could practically see him jumping out of his wheelchair in his shabby, dark home out of frustration. "God, stop getting so anal. Fine, I guess we're even then. Just don't bring that asshole into this, I get enough of his shit without your assistance, thank you."

"So you'll help us then?" the woman was hopeful, and she caught a glimpse of everyone else while speaking. Her eyes lingered on Ryan as he offered a small, reassuring smirk as the voice took forever to answer, then finally came back to all of their ears.

"What exactly is this... predicament that you all are in?"

"We think someone is tailing our every move, and we have no idea who it is, which kind of blows because we're planning our next lick. You think you can get on that and get us some info so we can understand what's going on, stop whoever it is?"

The words came smooth from the end of the line, and they caused Dakota to stare helplessly at Geoff as soon as they hit her. "What's in it for me?"

Geoff cut in abruptly, aiding Dakota as she had no idea what to say next.

"How about an even cut, same as the rest of us? When we're planning to hit it, transcripts that we scooped up from the failed score the night we met Dak-" he paused and smirked,"-say there will be roughly fifteen mil inside, and that's a pretty good score considering the cut for all of us will be over a million and three quarters. If you're as good as Dakota says you are, I'm sure you know that that money will fit nicely with all of the other dough you have just lounging around."

Lester didn't take as long as Dakota expected to pipe back up. "Done. Pleasure doing business with you. Dakota, whenever you're ready to get together about this and figure it all out, you know where to find me." 

And with that, the line went dead, leaving the Fake AH Crew to their mixed thoughts about the man. The call was so short, so unnerving and so weird they had no idea what to even think of the man. There was a kind of spoken silence in the air as the all stood breathless and perplexed, not exactly sure how to process what had actually just happened. It wasn't until Jack talked that they all fell down from their fixed state and listened back in.

"So... that's the man that put you back on top?" he stopped himself for a moment, then kept going. "How the fuck did you put up with it?"

"Honestly, Jack, I didn't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one was kind of short, guys, but I really wanted to get it done. sorry if it seemed kind of rushed too, I'm just determine to get a lot of chapters out soon! And lo and behold, we finally know Dakota's source from the first chapter! Lester from the actual campaign of GTA V! I absolutely adore those guys, so it's an idea I wanted to put in for a while, and I decided to do it! Hope you guys enjoyed, please give feedback, it's much appreciated! Thank you so much for all the support so far.


	11. Chapter 11

"Hey, Dak, he reply yet?" a northern voice hummed from across the room and registered into Dakota's ears, but she wasn't exactly listening. She was too engrossed in her phone, making frustrated noises and thumbing madly over social media posts that she wasn't even really interested in either. She was far too concerned for the text message that she was so desperately waiting for. 

When he got no answer to his question, Michael huffed and continued to shoot zombies on his TV mounted on the wall before him. It had been like this for probably an hour, the exact time that the woman had come down to hang out in his apartment with him and Ray and Gav, who were in the other room on the other TV playing against Michael. They were supposed to all be having a tournament of who could kill the most and how many headshots came with that, and whoever was the loser had to go to the pier and cause enough havoc that they got the cops called on them. Fun shit, basically.

But Dak had been sitting at the counter in the kitchen the whole time she was here, waiting on a text message from Lester about their stalker, yet she hadn't gotten it yet and she apparently had texted him three hours earlier. So now the woman was stressing, making weird, inaudible, mad noises while not even talking to anyone else except for an occasional grunt when she got a notification, just not from whom she desired it to be from. 

Michael was getting tired of it. He wanted her to be next to him on the couch, having fun and killing things and trying to get her other friends to lose so the two could laugh at them and video them and make their life hell, whoever it was that was gonna have to go mental at the pier. But instead she was holed up, waiting on a message and moping around like a grumpy little potato, and he had to admit, he was not entirely impressed with her attitude today. 

She needed to stop worrying so much and just get back to being her normal self, and Michael was gonna get her to do so one way or another. 

"You know what?" he mumbled to himself, eyes glued to screen and watching Ray's character bolt itself across from where his character stood to annihilate a horde of corpses by mowing them down with an automatic rifle that he had modded out to the brim. As he saw Ray dart to another section, closer to where he was, he pulled out his grenade launcher and sighed. "Fuck it."

He pulled back the right bumper on his controller and a grenade flew out between the both of them, close enough that when it exploded, both of their screens turned red and as the character flew to the ground and zombies surrounded them, the screen finally cut to black as it exited to the lobby screen. Instantaneously, a loud, bird-like shriek followed, then a, "NOOOOO! MICHAEL, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DID YOU JUST DO?!"

Michael ignored the cries of his friends and got off of the couch, turning on his heels to walk over to Dakota. She was slouched over the countertop, sitting in one of the high chairs, hair covering every part of her face, and the little that he could see was illuminated by the light bouncing off from her phone below her. He strode over to her, but not before being greeted by two men barreling down the stairs, controller still stuck tightly in Ray's hand, and both of their faces full of distraught, maybe Ray a little bit more than Gavin.

Okay, a lot more. His face was practically stapled in place and didn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

Both Gav and Ray reached Michael, arms flapping tirelessly and mouths following suit. 

Ray stepped in front of Gavin, pushing the British man out of the way and got closer to Michael, his dark chocolate orbs wide in absolute terror and hurt and awe. His jet black eyebrows were raised as high as possible, making the whites of his eyes even more visible and transforming his face truly into one of betrayal, and Michael had to stop himself from laughing at just how ridiculously emotional he was being over the game. Then again, if Ray had done it to him, he would be the exact same way, just a fit of rage instead of whatever this was. 

Dakota wasn't even phased by the situation unfolding before her as Ray began to speak in a high volume talking voice, close enough to a yell that it wasn't even funny. 

"What the hell was that for?! I was at 350 kills and close to 230 headshots! That's more than fifty percent, dude, and I was kicking both of your asses so far! It's not cool just to kill me because you don't want to lose and-"

As hilarious as Ray's current state was, not to mention how traumatized Gavin was behind him, Michael had to cut it down real fast to explain what was going on. 

"No, dude, I wasn't doing it to be an asshole," he stated simply, thumbing over to the woman basically dead on the granite counter who still didn't pay any attention to her friends whatsoever. "I did it because of this asshole."

He then turned to Dakota, grasping the phone straight from her hands and plucking it out, only to stick it into his back pocket. Dak immediately shot up, hair flying every which way and eyes glaring deadly into Michael's own as if she was about to suck his soul out with one single look. He gulped mentally, but stood his ground and tried to find some way to reciprocate the stare.

Her voice came out cold and she honestly reminded him of a moody teenager. 

"Give it back."

Michael shook his head, his curls bouncing lightly and his glasses sliding down a tiny bit. 

"No. Not until you get off of your ass and join us, like how you said you would when I invited you down here."

"Well, I wasn't caught up in the text then!"

"Bullshit! You texted him before you came here, you just decided to morph into a kid the moment you stepped in the door. You have not once answered me or interacted with us, and that's not how we like you. We like the annoying, talkative, loud, funny Dak, not the brain dead twelve year old Dak."

Dakota rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest, and it confirmed even more just how much she was acting like a teenager. Michael mocked her stance. 

"Just give me my phone back, Jones," she bit.

" _Just give me my phone back, Jones,_ " he teased, repeating every word she said in a higher pitched voice than his own although her voice was always a sweet alto rather than the high soprano that he used.

"Seriously, Michael?"

" _Seriously, Michael?_ "

"So you're gonna mock me. Good one."

" _So you're gonna mock me. Good one._ "

"That's not gonna get you anywhere."

" _That's not gonna get you anywhere._ See? If you wanna act like a child, I can too. So stop worrying about the text message because the man is busy, probably with our problem, and you bugging out about it isn't going to help you or us."

Dakota let her arms drop and her back slacked with it, her face contorting into a mixture of being upset and grumpy. "But Geoff wanted to know by tonight's meeting what he said and-"

Michael interjected. "Dakota! Chill out! We have hours until the meeting, and I'm sure he will reply to you by then! You need to relax, forget about it, and join the tournament, because I am not letting you lose without even trying. Besides, I want you to laugh at Gavin with me when he has to be the one to do the punishment."

Gavin scoffed. "Why do you automatically assume it'll be me?!"

Ray faced his friend with a dumbfounded expression. 

"Maybe because out of three attempts of the four, you're already in last every time with the least amount of kills and headshots, but that's just a thought, yanno, stuff like that."

The guys laughed furiously, and their laughter broke Dakota from her catatonic state. She couldn't help but smile, soon joining their fits of giggles and all of a sudden she felt extremely dumb for the way she had been acting. Michael was right, and she was just being too obsessively anxious to think otherwise. 

When the laughter died down, the four young members too quieted themselves, absorbing the moment that they were all sharing together. No matter what, it was never a dull one, and Dakota was thankful to have such amazing, close friends as those three guys who actually cared about her happiness and wanted to get her out of her funks when she was in them. It was hard to find people like that, people who were your family when they weren't blood, especially in their line of work. And somehow, someway, she had people like that just by being in that particular crew.

She didn't have friends growing up the way she did, and the ones that she made in her adult life never stuck. But not these guys. It had been a short amount of time, but they were all already so invested in each other that Dakota couldn't help but feel she had known them since the beginning of time. And it was truly remarkable. 

Feeling guilt trying to push its way to her surface, she brushed it off.

"I'm sorry, guys. Is there a spot still open in the tournament?"

Michael smiled heavily, his cheeks spreading out because of the sheer size of the grin.

"I don't know, do you think you can handle killing some undead bitches? Because if not, I don't think this game is for you," he replied, turning away from her and shrugging his shoulders just to add on to his act. Dakota caught the playful drift and went along with it.

"God, you got me there. I have no idea how I can kill undead people when I've killed living people," she sighed, walking over to the couch from the kitchen. "I mean, killing a person with a family and a life, just taking that away? It's easy. But killing someone who's already dead and let alone on a video game? I don't know if it'll be as smooth as a live one." 

Her sarcasm was thick, but she continued to act dumb. Her fingers ran over the controller on the couch before picking it up, and she turned back to face the three men who were watching her with amused looks. 

"I mean, for starters, how the hell do you even work this thing?"

"Okay, smart ass, just start a new game with Gavin so we can get this show on the road."

It didn't take long for the game to get started with Dakota and Michael in the living room, Gavin and Ray back up the stairs to the room they were in while playing. Both Dak and Gav were in a session, steadily hacking and shooting away at dead corpses, sometimes harming each other's characters just to steal a few kills from the person opposite them. 

At one point, Dakota was absolutely murdering Gavin's score, and it didn't sit right with him. He had looked at Ray sternly, then back to the screen to see where Dakota was at, then said nonchalantly, "I'm gonna kill her and make it look like an accident." Ray advised differently, but Gavin saw that the only way he could possibly catch back up was to murder Dakota and make sure that he racked in all of the kills by himself. Luckily, since they weren't in the same room, he was able to concoct his plan aloud instead of in his head, and it was all too perfect. 

He called out as loud as he could to make sure his friend could hear him from the living room.

"Hey, Dak, I need your help! I'm pinned down pretty tightly and I don't think I can spray my way out."

Dakota spun her character around to try and pinpoint exactly where Gavin was, and she took out three zombies in the process. Finally she found that there was an abnormally large crowd way off in the distance, all seeming to circle in on something, and Dakota yelled back, "Is that you over there in the ball room or did you throw a flare to distract them?"

Gavin had indeed actually thrown a flare to distract the horde, but that was all part of his mischievous plan, so he lied straight through his teeth when he shot back a reply. 

"Yeah, that's me. Hurry! I don't think I can last much longer!"

That was all it took for Dakota not to buy it. Gavin wasn't a very convincing liar in the first place, but he was just insulting her judgment now. He acted as if throwing a flare didn't leave smoke in the position of where the flare landed, and clearly in the middle of the crowd, a trail of gray smoke pooled out into the air. The Brit was up to something, and she wasn't ready to give in to him.

Michael noticed his bluff too. 

"You're not going to believe that, are you?" he asked, and Dakota smirked.

She pulled out a sniper on the screen and stared down the sights, slowly looking around to find just exactly where Gavin actually was at. Michael's lips pulled into a smile themselves.

"Way ahead of you. Watch this," she said, spotting Gavin up on a ledge above the mass of zombies, and when his character's head was in her crosshairs, she again called out upstairs. "Yeah, hold on, I'm on my way!"

And with that, she pulled the back bumper, releasing a single shot off. The next thing she knew, Gavin's character was limply falling from the ledge and hitting the ground below it, gun falling from his hand on the way. The apartment filled with a shrill noise that didn't even sound remotely human, followed by, "GODDAMMIT!"

Dakota and Michael and Ray all burst into an incredible rage of laughter, falling from the seats in harmony although one of them was in a completely different room. They all couldn't control themselves as they rolled around, soaking in Gavin's terrified and distressed screams and noises that only caused their laughing to spiral out of control until their stomachs hurt and Dakota's voice was actually non-existent for a few good seconds. She didn't even care that she was getting mauled on by dead people on the game and slowly dying because she had beaten Gavin, and there was no way he was getting out of it because that was his last attempt. 

Gavin was downstairs in no time, looming over his two friends that were desperately trying to stop laughing and pick themselves up from the floor, but to no avail. Ray came stumbling in, leaning against the bottom of the glass railing of the stairs while closing his eyes and letting his face contort as another fit climbed its way up in his stomach.

"How did you know what I was gonna do?! I was so discreet about it that I almost died from the isolation!" Gav demanded towards the woman on the floor. He was absolutely petrified, because he knew that he was screwed now, as he was the loser of the tournament and had to fulfill the punishment that he had helped make up.

Dak was still too busy dying, and it took her a while, but she finally started to pick herself up off of the floor and back onto the couch, and when her body was halfway on, halfway off, she tried to speak up.

"Y-you act like I'm d-dumb, Gavin," she cooed, cooling off. "I could see the smoke from the flare. Next time have a better plan or at least lie to me better."

"Dammit!" Gavin cursed, but he had to admit, it was pretty funny how she just offed him. He giggled a bit himself. "I really thought it would work!"

"Well, it didn't, and now we're gonna drive you to the pier so you can get started on your punishment," Ray said matter of factly, and his face was glowing upon the thought of watching Gavin terrorize pier goers so much that the cops would be on him about it. 

Gavin paused at Ray's words.

"Wait, we have to go now?!"

Michael was slowly getting off of ground level, standing to his feet and patting himself off as soon as he was up. He stuck a finger out at the British man and hopped over the couch, ecstatic about what was about to come next. 

"Yeah, we're going now! We have a meeting later and there's no way you're doing it afterwards, it has to be right when it's fresh on the mind! Besides, it's the perfect time to do it, because this is when that whole area is just crawling with people, so you're gonna have fun in such a populated, family related area!"

"Bloody Hell, I should have just shot her and not even have made a stupid plan."

The transition from the apartment to the pier was quick and swift, with Dakota grabbing Gavin's hand and running him to the door and in the hallway after Michael and Ray had took off first. They raced to the elevator, taking it down to the lobby and then sprinting out of the doors while also running into a very confused Jack, who had just come from eating out with his girlfriend, Caiti. The four rammed into an SUV, Dakota practically throwing herself and a reluctant Gavin into the backseat as Ray hopped into the driver's and Michael into the passenger's.

The minutes flew by as the car did the same, passing other vehicles and flying in and out of lanes and dodging and weaving anyone and everything in the road. Although the pier was usually about a fifteen minute drive from where HQ was conveniently placed in the midst of everything really major of the city, Ray cut it down to about a nine minute drive with his risky speeding and even riskier turns without really pressing on the brake like a normal person. 

Then again, they weren't exactly normal, and rules didn't exactly apply to them anyways.

The SUV was soon whipping into the wooden parking lot of the pier, narrowly missing a few other cars that were parked peacefully to themselves, and as soon as the wheels stopped turning, the group hopped out and pushed Gavin to the front of the pack, eager for him to start his punishment and get the cops involved along the way. As his friends were laughing, Gavin wondered how his life came to this moment.

He had been an introvert all of his life, ever since he was a kid back in England all the way to when he moved to the US at a young age because both of his parents had been drug abusers, and they were trying to clean up their life after Gavin popped into it. So they whisked their family away, hoping to live the American dream in North Yankton's Liberty City, the most patriotically proclaimed city of the entire country, as they always told him as a boy.

Yet that dream didn't exactly work out that well when they found themselves without any money and barely living in a two bedroom, rundown apartment in the slums of the inner city. His parents, having major withdrawals all the time and lots of times taking it out on their little, innocent boy who didn't even know what was going on half of the time, finally cracked and took up drugs again to ease their pains. 

Sometimes they wouldn't come back for weeks on end, forcing Gavin to fend for himself with nothing but crackers, cheese, dirty water from the tap if it ever even came out because the water bill was never paid for along with the rest of the bills. And the only thing he had was a TV that his family had took with them from overseas, a crank up one that had been around for at least two generations. 

When it was pitch black in the house, dead in the middle of the night and no one there to comfort his fears, he cranked up the TV and watched the news because it was the only channel on. And it gave him comfort, especially when he found Tobias Dayley's picture one day and a backstory of one of the most "horrendous robberies ever pulled in America's history." But it wasn't horrendous to him; it was a masterpiece.

And his obsession with Tobias and the criminal lifestyle only grew worse when he got older, started to actually think for himself, stand up for himself when his parents tried to hit him with the next object to their left whether it be a pan, a lamp, even one time throwing the needle that his mother used to shoot up with which came dangerously close to sticking in his neck. Every time an intolerable sentence about how he wasted their life or how he was never any good or how he would never grow up to any kind of greatness because he was always a mistake came his way, he thought about what it would be like to be in Tobias's shoes. To live as his did. To have endless riches and endless thrills getting those riches.

It got to the point where the day that he turned seventeen, Gavin took off, away from his poor life, away from the life that he hated himself for, away from the parents that never even seemed like actual family, away from the loneliness, the sadness, the grief, the despair, the fear. He took off and abandoned the life that he wouldn't ever wish upon anyone else, ever. And he headed to the great, the _actually_ great and patriotic city of Los Santos.

It took weeks to do it, getting rides and sneaking onto buses and learning himself how to pickpocket unnoticeably, but it got him by, and he finally made it to the city where his dreams would come true. And then it took years to perfect the art by himself, but hearing the news of Tobias on the run with a young kid across the country, stealing scores and living his life kept him going, and finally he was at a stage where he thought he was near damn invincible. He finally felt free, not having to depend on anyone else, especially people who would hurt him, and his life was finally starting to have meaning. He found a place, an amazing girl that he developed feelings for quickly and supported him for he who was (surprisingly,) and it wasn't until Geoff came to him, proposition to join the Fake AH Crew under his sleeve, that Gavin actually felt important. And he took the offer.

Fast forward a while later, and here he was: at the LS pier, amazing friends laughing behind him, his idol's daughter one of them, and it hadn't hit him until now that maybe he was truly glad that he left his real life behind and learned how to live the life he wanted to instead. Even if it meant that he was about to make an absolute fool out of himself for said friends' pleasure.

"How did it ever get here?" he mumbled to himself, a small smirk on his lips as he stepped towards the entrance of the pier, right underneath the roller coaster and the Ferris wheel. 

Life was good, and he swore that with his crew, it only got better.

-

The doors to the conference room busted open, and in poured the four missing crew members, their eyes filled to the brim with amusement and their mouths still pooling fits of snickering and hysterics. Even Gavin, who seemed half embarrassed, half immersed in his own despair, couldn't stop the smiles and giggles from himself.

They waltzed in as if nothing else was going on in the world, only themselves and the fun they had had, but in all honesty, they were an hour late to their meeting, and Geoff wasn't too particularly pleased.

The four made their way to the seats that they always designated to themselves, but not before finishing the conversation that they had going on while on their way to the top floor.

"You're mental, you're seeing things!" Gavin teased, looking at Michael as he took a seat at his chair, landing in it with a small plop into the thick cushions. 

Michael cackled and raised his voice, a bewildered look spewed on his face. 

"How the hell am I mental?! You're the one who showed your bright, British ass to every woman, man, and child! They probably saw your balls, too, you crazy bastard! That's the real reason that they called the cops!"

"It's true, I have it all on video," Ray swore, putting his right hand over his heart, the sincerest expression atop his head and underneath his slightly dirty glasses. Gavin stole a nervous glance at his friend, his eyes widened. 

"You do not! You're a liar!" he screeched, but Dakota took it upon herself to interject him.

"Nah, he's being truthful, I have one too," she replied, a smug smile to match her smug pose.

"Then show me them!" Gavin demanded, stepping towards Dakota (who was across the room and on the other side of the table) and he was greeted by the face of Geoff, whom he had not noticed when he and the other younger members came into the room, to be completely honest. This was the first time any of them had noticed him, or Jack, or Ryan, and it just so happened to be when Gavin was practically nose to nose with the tattooed man.

All of the chatter and laughter died down immediately as Gavin dared to even breathe, scared that the more than uninterested Geoff would get pissed off, more than he was earlier when Jack texted Ray that they seriously needed to get back to HQ because they were late to the meeting that was planned for more than a week. 

Just the possibility of thinking Geoff was angry after reading that text was all it took for the four to sprint to the car and hightail it back to their home, but it didn't stop them from passing the time, and the fear each of them had didn't falter their goofiness. And maybe they got a little carried away, but they didn't regret it honestly.

Until they were in the same room with their very pissed, very not amused friend/boss.

As if he were once a rabid dog, turned down into nothing but a mere helpless, merciful puppy, Gavin backed away slowly and retracted into his seat at the speed of a turtle. Ray, slapping Dak once lightly on the shoulder yet never taking his eyes off of Geoff, followed Gavin's lead, and soon Dakota too was seated and silent. 

She turned her head towards Ryan, blinking a few times to try and rid herself of the anxiousness and awkwardness she felt, but that didn't help her, and Ryan let a small laugh leave his mouth, barely audible enough that Dakota herself was the only one who could actually hear it. 

Just looking at him oddly reassured her, and she didn't feel so bad when she finally faced towards Geoff again, who was about to open his mouth to speak.

"So, uh, I'm glad you guys had fun," he offered, nonchalantly, but his tone was clearly diced with irritation. "But, uh, you probably forgot that the reason you even live here is because you have a job to do, and coming an hour late doesn't exactly roll with me."

No one spoke at all, but all of their blank, unnervingly not calm stares towards one another was enough to speak for every single one of them. Even for the people who weren't in trouble, Jack and Ryan sure thought that they were all of a sudden.

Geoff's hand reached up to his ear, tugging on it gently while furrowing his brow just to fathom what he had next to say. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to yell at them or to ask them for the video of Gavin pulling his pants down in front of dozens of people, but he decided off of both, no matter how bad he wanted to do them, and instead chose a more subtle route. After all, these people were still his family, and he loved to see them bonding so well and sticking that way. There just had to be some boundaries.

"Alright, look. I'm gonna let this one slide because I love you bastards, but I swear to God if you pull this again, I'm hiring the Vagabond to do whatever the fuck he wants to do to you."

Upon Geoff's words, there were instant chuckles from all of the male crew members, but not Dakota. She had no clue why that joke was so funny to them. And it kind of didn't sit right with her for some reason, because she felt that the answer was so simple, but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

_Wasn't the Vagabond that merc that wreaked havoc on the city for a while? The one who was fatal, swift, a ghost whom no one ever saw his face? And didn't he disappear a year or two ago? Or maybe it was more?_

Dakota didn't know if she was right or not, but when everyone finally actually took their seats and Geoff headed to his position at the head of the table, she shook her thoughts and prepared to listen to him.

The man, straightening out his slightly ruffled shirt with the palm of his hand, leant down onto the mahogany table and cleared his throat. His stare searched the majority of the room, then the people, and when he was finally content that he had all eyes and ears fixated on him, it didn't take him long to start.

"So," he began, calmly and smoothly as if nothing was astray, "as you all know, lately we've been prepping for our latest heist."

He earned loud hollering from both Ray and Michael, and it caused an immediate, hearty chuckle from the frontman who had to take a second to continue. 

"And so far, we haven't had any troubles, rather than a creep that's been trying to ruin all the fun."

Dakota zoned out as he spoke. She was a little too worried about what he was going to say, because she hadn't thought about it until that moment, but the text that she was waiting for finally came while her and her friends were fucking around at the pier. It was right before Gavin had pulled his little stunt, so when the text came through and she started freaking out to Michael and Ray, they advised that she just blow it off and forget about it until the meeting so it can be interpreted. 

And she did just that, forgot about it and had fun with people who made everything better. But now as she sat at the table, the whole crew around her and her boss speaking about the whole heist, she couldn't help but remember the text word for word.

_Dak, it's me. Just got done going through the camera feed of the Liberty Two Bank that you were at, and even though you were on it for a split second, you're not recognizable, so you're good there. But you had a shadow who wasn't very good at hiding himself. And that shadow is a fucking FIB agent. Dawson Lahey. Look, maybe you guys should postpone the score. I know for Christ's sake I would._

Ever since she had read those words, it was like a deep conscience that burrowed its way into the back of her brain and her gut and alerted red flags and sirens, anything to make her realize that if they at least didn't delay the heist, then some heavy shit would go down. 

She hated to think like that. It made her feel like she was giving up, and if there was anything she hated as bad as preparations, she totally abhorred giving up. It made her feel weak, look weak. It ate away at her every second afterwards and she hated the hole and the emptiness that she felt when she gave up. 

The same hole that found a way deep into her soul when her dad died, because she felt like just giving up and letting go and joining him in whatever afterlife he found for himself, whether that was hell or his own kind of peace. She wanted to know that that hole didn't define her, because in Dak's mind, it shaped her. It made her. 

The same hole that forced her to contemplate whether or not she was a person who should grace the earth with her presence, and it got so bad that she actually phoned Burnie, sobbing and talking nonsense, and he drove miles all over the city just to get to her place and hold her and coax her and convince her that if she ever left him, he wouldn't be worth a dime.

The same hole that made her mask her pain and turn back to the art of the thief.

If Dakota knew anything about this hole, it was that it was no good, and she needed to trust her gut and just tell Geoff her thoughts.

"-and as we talked it out, we figured that the sewer route would be the best way to go, the one that our little female friend found while on her recon job," she heard Geoff say as her mind returned to reality, and she acted like she had been listening the whole time. "It's a little bit easier than trying to make such an elaborate scheme where we might not have a great shot at getting out, but I have feeling that this way has a higher percentage in escape."

He turned to Dak and gave a half, closed mouth smile. "You had a plan for that, right? Like you looked at the blueprints and had some thoughts?"

Dakota returned a blank expression, blinking a few times, and the air became slightly still, but she regained her personality and spoke up.

"Yeah, I did," she reached down to her pocket and pulled out her phone, brining up a picture of the blueprints that she had taken a picture of, and she zoomed in on the section that was nearest the bank.

"Turns out that about a mile down from the bank when you go underground, there's a system of tunnels that each find their way to the surface another quarter mile out or so. One leads to the Senora Freeway, one feeds straight into the hills a pretty good ways from the bank, and the last one goes into this little spot of irrigation farming," Dakota paused to look at that tunnel.

"The third tunnel goes a little bit farther than the rest, but it's not bad. I was thinking the six who go in split up into teams of two and go through each tunnel, and as soon as they surface, there's a driver waiting with a vehicle there."

Jack immediately perked up. 

"I can do that. So you six can get into the actual building and do all the work, and I'll get whatever team that I have away clean."

Geoff nodded at the bearded man, acknowledgement eternal in his eyes. Dakota remembered that Toshi told her that Jack was well known with cars and planes and such, and she hadn't really gotten to see much of it in the past month, and she couldn't wait to. She still wanted to race him though.

"We could pull Kerry and Dan in for the other two getaways," Ray piped up, his elbows resting gently on the table to prop himself up.

"Yeah, I was just thinking that, but then there won't be an even cut," Geoff replied, but Ray laughed.

"Dude, there'll be fifteen mil in that fucking bank! I think if we gave them both a little bit from each of our cuts, they'll be just fine with their positions. I think I can handle one and a half million rather than a mil and three quarters."

The leader pondered the suggestion quietly to himself, and it didn't take him long to make a decision.

"I like the way you think, Narvaez. I'll bring them in. It's not like those bastards wouldn't have found out anyways, they're always sneaking in to their apartments and butting into our conversations."

"I mean, just a thought, but that's what happens when you get into a crew. Just a thought, though."

"Alright, don't push it," Geoff again turned back to a very observing Dak, and he raised his head. "Did you ever get a verdict from Lester?"

_Oh shit, here we go._

Dakota sheepishly nodded, reluctantly might she add, and when she knew that an answer was being awaited, she took a breath and decided to tell them straight before actually getting to the message.

"Guys, maybe we should delay our plans for now."

"Hell no!" Michael was the first to scream.

Immediately an uproar surfaced throughout the room, people cussing and asking tens of thousands of questions that she couldn't comprehend although she got used to listening to six conversations at one time. There was so much noise that she had to pinch the bridge of her nose just to get a clear thought in, and when she did, she cut into the air.

"No, at least hear me out, please."

When everything finally settled to a silent, open air, and Geoff gave a signal to continue, Dakota obeyed and started to read through the message. It didn't take long for the silence to flip to tension, making the room so condense that a bullet wouldn't even stand a chance of making it from one side to the other. 

The guys, eyes hardened and faces like stone upon hearing the message being read aloud to them, had no idea what to do or think. For the most part, it was a mixed verdict at that point. 

Some wanted to stand with her, to hear her out and to follow her because what they had just heard was pretty serious and they didn't know if keeping the heist underway was a good idea after all. But others, mainly just Michael, big time with Geoff, didn't even want to hear it. They wanted to keep going because what if the old hermit was just paranoid?

Didn't Dakota say he truly was? There was no way that this Lahey character could just take out an entire crew by himself, let alone stop a whole heist. He was one person and they were six, highly skilled, highly trained personnel who could take care of themselves and get their jobs done without hesitation.

One man couldn't change that.

"Look," Dakota said, giving a glance to everyone. "I know it's not easy to take in, it isn't for me either. But I think for the long run we should just consider postponing and-"

Before she could finish, a voice stopped her.

"No."

Dakota broke her sentence, mouth still open, and looked around until she found the source of the voice that protested how she felt. As soon as her search began it was over, because what she found was Geoff, still at the head of the table, hands refrained from the wood, crossed against his chest. 

His eyes were cold, and his face was unmovable, locked in place and not giving in any time soon.

She sat for a moment, not knowing what to say to the man, but her brain clicked into place and she had to try to defend her side.

"Why not? Geoff, you heard it yourself, there might be no way around this until we figure it out and then we can get on with-"

"Stop. Just stop right there. Stop saying 'we' as if you're trying to decide for everyone," he bit, gaze not once breaking from the woman diagonal with him. He felt irritated, red hot, and he had to put his foot down. "You don't decide for everyone, I do. and I say no."

Dak tensed, seeing the tattooed man as the one she had once seen when they first met. The territorial, cynical, thorough, witty crew leader that had barged into her home and had thoughts of killing her as soon as they came face to face. The man who was so obsessed with finding her that it only took him two days to do so, much quicker than anyone else who tried to research her.

She didn't like being toe to toe with such a prideful, possessive man that acted higher and tried to run his crew rather than blend with them. She liked the Geoff who was a family member, a silly, older man who was just as childish as the youngest members. And although she knew he wasn't like this at all times, she still couldn't stand getting talked to like a toddler.

The shell that she worked so hard to shed in the past month tried to peak out from the recesses of her mind, and she almost growled with her next words.

"And I may not decide for all of us, but I'll ask you again: why not?"

"Dakota-" Ray reached across the table to touch her hand, but she retracted it.

"Why the hell not, Geoff?!" she reiterated, demanding that he give her a straight reason rather than try to demote her again.

"Because I'm not gonna let you stop my heist because your little paranoid pal said so! This goddamn quest hasn't even began, and if this FIB fucker isn't gonna scare me away, I'm not going to let you either!"

The woman shot up from her chair and started to move towards Geoff, but Jack, who was sitting between them, stood and got in her way.

"Dak, no," he whispered, trying to give her the most sincere look he could to get her to hold on to her emotions. She shrugged off his plea and instead tried again to get around him, but Ray left his seat and barricaded himself with Jack for the sake of his friend.

"How the fuck am I trying to scare you away?!" her voice rose as she let her words flow out. "I'm trying to give you a pretty damn good suggestion that you should at least consider instead of shooting down because I'm trying to look out for all of us and-"

Geoff's face scrunched a bit and he waved a hand at her. "You're not looking out for shit! I don't know why you feel so much responsibility over something that you clearly have no control over! _I_ look out for us, and you're not going to convince me otherwise! I don't care who you are, famous dad or not, you've been here for not even a year and I'm not going to listen to you!"

Geoff didn't know why he was so quick to answer her earlier, honestly. It was just something that he heard in the tone of her voice, and it instantly made his bones crawl. He felt defensive, like he had to protect his role. Maybe he was just overreacting, but Dakota in the moment had seemed like a threat, and he wanted that eliminated quick.

"So you're just gonna throw away what I say and not even think about it?! I could be saving our asses here!" she yelled, but it was clear that Geoff was just going to shoot down anything that she had to say about the situation.

Ryan, not being able to take the situation unfolding before him anymore, moved around the table, away from Gavin and Michael who stood just as unsure as he had, to the backside of Dakota, ready for action in case she did anything drastic. His immediate instinct told him to be there for her, to make sure she stayed out of trouble, and he was waiting to do just that.

Geoff's face was still stone cold as he glared at his current arguing counterpart, and he had enough of hearing her because he wasn't going to back down, and obviously neither was she.

"You're damn right I'm not gonna listen to you. The heist is still on. Meeting dismissed. Now get out."

"You son of a bitch-"

Ryan stepped in at that moment, and he grabbed Dakota's shoulders from behind as she began to try to play Red Rover with Jack and Ray and break down their barrier. She recoiled at the touch and tried to struggle, but Ryan tightened his grip, no matter how hard she wiggled to get free of his grasp.

"Dakota! Dakota, stop. We gotta go! Please, just go," he said, hoping that he would somehow get through to her. She _had_ to have enough sentiment for him that she would actually understand that he was trying to help and listen to him.

She couldn't hear the two men in front of her begging. She was too dead set on getting to her "boss" and beating him to a pulp, or yelling some more, both sounded good. She didn't want to hear anything other than her own voice, telling her to get past them and get to him. She didn't want to hear what anyone else had to say.

And she definitely didn't want to hear Ryan's voice, because she knew it was her own kryptonite for some odd, annoying reason. 

But she did hear it, and it took her a moment before she realized that he was pleading her to leave, and just like a dog to a bone, she let her tension drop and let Ryan drag her out of the conference room, into the hallway, and on the inside of the elevator on a ride to their floor, leaving the other members to wallow in the scene.

Dakota didn't know whether to thank Ryan or sock him for his involvement, but she kept both to herself on the ride down, not saying a word or taking her eyes from the doors to keep from doing either.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter might be shorter since I had an extremely long chapter for chapter 11, but trust me, the romance will begin to build up here (;

Dakota waited impatiently on the elevator ride, her eyes straight forward, her mouth made into a tight line, the rest of her face just about as cold as ice. Her body felt tight and the way that she tensed herself while reliving the past few moments over and over in her head made it even worse.

She couldn't get the fucking scenario out of her brain.

No matter how hard the Dayley woman tried, she just relived constantly the words that Geoff threw at her, the way he treated her like she was nothing but dust sifting through the wind. All she could see was his face, his moustache face that sat so sternly while glowering at her, spewing his venom and poisoning her with ever little syllable that drew off of his tongue.

It was like a vivid moment in a movie, going over and over and over again until the loop seemed endless and she felt locked in some kind of time hole that just didn't want to take its claws out of her. Or maybe she couldn't take her claws out of it. But either way, she was trapped in her own mind, and she wasn't going anywhere soon.

Dak didn't even remember getting into the elevator a few seconds in to the ride. It wasn't until she heard the ding of the bell that alerted that she arrived at her destination that she remembered where she was, and when Ryan stepped out in front of her to take the lead, she realized that he was the one who had pulled her out of there and it all came rushing back to her.

She stayed glued to the floor of the elevator, not sure whether to get out or not and go back up to whoop Geoff's ass, but when she looked at Ryan, his body swaying the way that it did when he walked, something pulled her in and forced her feet to move before the door closed in her face. She followed her counterpart to his door, instead of weirdly walking to her own where she could have the temper tantrum that she wanted to throw, and when he opened the door, she fell in after him.

Ryan didn't know why she came into his apartment. He wasn't expecting it, but he didn't exactly tell her that she couldn't join him. Maybe his subconscious wanted him to let her in, or maybe it was just some weird happening and he was overthinking it, but he let her in, shutting the door as soon as she stormed over to his kitchen.

He watched her as she approached the cabinet closet to the entrance of the kitchen that sat above the sink and granite top, and as her hands yanked open the door, taking out a barely drank bottle of whiskey that he didn't ever touch because when he was alone, if he drank, he drank light.

Dakota avoided his light blue eyes that she could feel observing her every move, probably waiting for her to break something, and she took the bottle over to the stairs, setting it onto the fourth set as she sat on the step below it. The woman moved to open the bottle, and as soon as the top was off and across the room, she raised it to her lips and took a long, never ending chug that Ryan thought lasted for forever. 

He didn't know what to do, what to say, if he should say or do anything at all, but when the bottle was finally resting next to her and her hand was gripped around its neck, he decided to join her. 

Ryan sat on the other side of her, away from the bottle in case she started swinging- although he knew that was being a bit dramatic and she wouldn't do that- and the two sat in silence for a minute, not knowing how to start a conversation.

Both of them wanted to talk, to see what was on the other person's mind and to let out thoughts of their own that they felt their counterpart should hear, but it was like sitting there with each other was strangely all that they needed to fill a void that had been created a few floors above them. For some odd reason, the presence that resided when they were in a room alone was all it took to make them feel... calm? Necessary? Needed? 

Neither knew how to describe the actual feeling that came with being with one another with no one else around, but if they had to guess, Dakota would say it made her feel secure and Ryan would say that it made him feel complete. Yes, there were feelings that were obviously there, but was it enough already that they both could feel that way, not even knowing each other for two months?

"That fucking asshole," Dakota finally mumbled, shaking her head and not giving Ryan so much as a side glance when the words dropped. He, too, didn't look at her, instead looked forward, but from his peripheral, he could see her hand bring up the bottle again and take another gulp before putting it down.

Dakota put her hands between her slightly ajar legs, letting them fall and dangle as her elbows balanced them on her thighs.

"That was out of character for Geoff," Ryan suggested, leaning back onto the step above him and propping himself up, his legs stretched out. Dakota scoffed, shaking her head and hair that bounced with natural buoyancy, the natural waves doing a slight wave of their own before stopping again and remaining motionless.

"You really believe that?"

Ryan turned his head and realized that Dakota too was looking at him, and he locked onto her blue, ocean-like eyes with the gold ring prominent in this early night lighting from the window-wall across the room from them. He hadn't deciphered the change from late afternoon to night, because he didn't think they were in the meeting for that long, but with the younger members being late and all of the planning, maybe he just didn't think about the transition. 

He gave a small nod. "Yeah. I know Geoff, and he doesn't usually act like that, all territorial."

Dak narrowed her eyes at him, the anger, embarrassment, sort of betrayal all coming back and boiling inside of her that she had felt, although she guessed it never really went away, Ryan and the whiskey kind of seized it for a moment.

"You may think that now, but I've been here for almost six weeks, Ryan, and I can tell that outsiders aren't exactly welcome. You don't notice it because you're not on the outside anymore."

"Neither are you, Dak," he replied, his voice deep but his tone light. He raised his eyebrows, his face lighting up as if to reassure her, but she wasn't buying it.

"Yes, I am," she sighed, pushing off of the steps and standing on her feet to tower over the man who was relaxing to himself, but she regretted getting up so fast cause the tiny buzz that she worked up almost whiplashed her. "Weeks ago, you guys were ready to kill me for a job that was mine in the first place, and I've been told the stories, Ryan, so many times that I understand and know that Geoff was the puppeteer in that equation! And ever since then, I know that I haven't exactly been accepted by everyone yet, and as in everyone I mean him."

Ryan sat forward, pulling his legs towards him to cross his arms on them. "He's impressed with you and the way that you work. He's pretty much acting the same as he did when all of us came in. I was the last to join, I should know."

"Oh yeah, that makes me feel so much better. Makes him sound like he's using me."

"He's not using you."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know a lot about him and he doesn't pull shit like that. He does a lot, but he doesn't use people, especially when you have purpose."

"Well, I'm glad you understand that, because no matter how impressed he is with me, he sure doesn't trust me to help him," she bit.

"Because he doesn't like getting help, Dakota. Never has."

"Then what? What am I supposed to do, just sit back and let something happen that I could have helped prevent? I have to try!"

Ryan sucked in a slow breath and let it out. "I get it. But I just really think he has to warm up to you. He needs time."

Dakota's face scrunched up a bit as she listened to him and she threw her hands up. 

"How fucking long is that supposed to take?! I do everything I'm asked of, even better than what's asked of me. I do it on time, earlier if possible, and sure I get a pat on the back, but I'm not taken seriously when a threat is posed and I give a reasonable solution?!"

She didn't understand how Ryan wasn't comprehending this. He knew her as good as Ray knew her, as good as Michael and Gavin did. Yet he still failed to give her a little bit of support and instead took up for a man who could quite possibly get them all killed or thrown in prison because he refused to call off a score that they could easily pick back up when all was said and done!

It didn't make sense how she was the only one who understood the full weight of what was going to happen if they weren't careful and watched their backs.

"No, I know," Ryan started, standing up to match her although he was taller by a few inches over her 5"7, "trust me, I'm pretty sure all of us were with it. He just... he doesn't like to listen, and he doesn't like to be told what to do and that's what he thought you were doing."

"Well that's the point!" Dakota's voice raised a bit, and she ran a hand through her hair to stop herself from punching a wall. "I didn't do shit! God, all I wanted was for him to consider and he just blew me out of the water and didn't give me a chance to explain myself, and I don't stand for that!"

"Dak-"

"No, Ryan, please don't try to patronize me or try to defend him again. I know you have good intentions but I don't want to hear it. I'm pissed enough and that'll just make me feel even crazier than I do right now."

She left her position and found her way over to window-wall, grasping onto her elbows and letting her hair fall down both of her shoulders, covering part of her arm from its length. 

They weren't exactly high up on the fifth level, but it was quite a drop below and high enough to see that the city outside was alive, paced with lights and buildings galore that crowded every square inch and didn't leave any space at all. The other structures almost glittered in the consuming darkness, and neon lights from signs and bars illuminated streets filled with night goers whom sought adventure. 

Tucked away underneath shrouds of darkness and looming clouds that never really went away, the Vinewood hills rolled on, far from all of the life and liveliness of the inner boundaries of the city. 

Airplanes would occasionally pass by overhead, the blinking red bulbs flying almost in slow motion if it's vehicle wasn't fully detected. A wind was apparent from the way that the glass radiated the cold onto the bare parts of Dakota's arms, and it caused her to squeeze herself tighter to avoid shivering because it was a little chilly in the apartment when she thought about it. But it didn't stop her from feeling red hot, equipped with rage and anger that she wanted so badly to take out on the source of her emotions.

But for her sake and all of the crew's sake, she kept it inside and instead decided to rant her emotions out.

"I just don't get it, you know?" her voice was still harsh, but the volume was lowered and it was clear that she was trying to calm herself and become zen again. "How you can try to make the best out of something, make sure that nothing bad happens, and just because you're not someone's first choice if you or someone they actually care about is hanging off a ledge, they don't listen to you."

"Is that how you feel?"

"Yeah, like a last choice for no reason, a last resort. I may be good with my work, Ryan, but I know what I'm talking about. I'm not just spewing stuff to sound smart. I care. And I want to prevent the worst from happening, but I can't even get a damn word in."

Ryan took his own route over to the window, standing on the left side of her body while taking in the serenity outside that slowly played out before the both of them. He put his hands in his back pockets, admiring the view to himself before replying.

"I know, D. I really do," he stated, blowing out a breath before continuing. He didn't know how he could console her, but he guessed that maybe if he gave her tidbits of his past with the crew, maybe it could help. 

She didn't need to know that he was the Vagabond just yet, though, because he feared it would scare her away, away from whatever was forming between them. He wanted to tell her when he was ready, when he thought she could accept it.

"I know I've told you bits and pieces about myself, that I'm 'mysterious' to you and it doesn't help that I don't really reveal a whole lot of my past," he started.

"Yeah, but I'm fine with it," she shrugged, and it was true. Dakota didn't ever pressure him into what he did and didn't want to say and that's a reason they were so close, because they made it work rather than pushing stuff out.

He smiled a bit. "You are, but sometimes I'm not okay with it. You tell me so much about yourself and I know your whole background so well I could write you a timeline of your own life."

She chuckled at his words, but quickly regained her face and kept her gaze on the window, the city outside that was so interesting for no reason at all.

"I don't think I've told you yet, but I was a merc like you," Ryan paused, wondering if he really should reveal so much of himself because he didn't want her to piece together anything, but he crossed out that thought and kept going.

"I was... good, I guess you can say. Independent, not much of a team player, a lot like you. In fact, the person I, uh, used to be I guess I could say, reminds me so much of you that it's not even funny. I was kind of just this, machine. A well oiled machine that got the job done and never break down, but didn't have much of a life because I was inanimate. Now I'm not saying that you're like that, but when your dad died, you felt the same nothing that was inside of me. Work first, work second, work last. All about work and not really anybody else because human contact wasn't always an option in your own mind."

Dakota listened thoughtfully, kind of dazed that he was actually opening up about what he did before the crew. Sure, he briefly touched on it, and he more of talked about his upbringing and his early involvement with the crew rather than the work he did before, and she knew a lot about him, but this was all news to her.

He said he was someone else, and she couldn't hardly believe that because he seemed like he had been the same person he was now all his life.

The more you know.

"Well, when Geoff initially approached me, I wasn't ready. It took a lot of convincing, coaxing, all of that before I finally let my walls fall down and I accepted his offer. I don't know to this day what made me join, but I just had a feeling that I should. It wasn't all sunshine and daisies when I came in. The crew was barely assembled, brand new and not exactly pulling off big scores. It was all little stuff here and there and getting to know who these other people were, kind of like I told you. But I never really told you how much Geoff and I used to butt heads. It wasn't because of anything like," he stopped and gestured with one hand in a circular motion in front of her, " _this_ , but because I tried to rebel often, to back out."

"I just wasn't used to being around other people, working with them and being someone I didn't think I was. It took time, but look where we are now. That man would honestly be my best man at my wedding, if I ever get the opportunity to have that kind of connection with someone else, and I know it for a fact. We're closer than we look, and our bond all started because one day we both just gave up and decided to work with each other and keep the crew in a good spot. It wasn't always easy to just drop our differences, but it happened," he stopped to look down at Dakota.

"I really think that's all you two need. Time."

She didn't bother to return the look, instead kept her face forward, and he took the signal and again looked back in front of him. 

Dakota had no idea that they were like that. It was kind of surreal to hear about how... different Ryan was, but even just the fact that once he and Geoff weren't what they are today, because she had to admit, she knew just how tight they were. Almost the same kind of friendship that Michael and Gavin shared, just a little more practical and not boyish, although those two were just as bad about being children as anyone else in the Fake AH Crew.

And maybe Ryan was right, she and her boss just needed time. After all, they weren't as well known with each other as everyone else was with her. She felt that she knew Geoff the least out of anyone there, which was weird, because Dakota and Griffon were pretty good friends, and that meant she was close with the boss's wife, not him.

They usually gave each other a passing, "How's it going?" rather than if she saw someone else who would immediately run up to her and start a conversation and ask if she wanted to do something later or whatever it may be. Come to think of it, the only times they really talked was for jobs, or small conversations about Burnie, but the only times they have a conversation outside of the job that's actually lengthy is when they get piss drunk at a bar or in the lobby.

They were best friends _then_.

But other than that, Dakota and Geoff's relationship was considered just that, a relationship and a drunken friendship that seemed meaningless and small. Not the best way to get to be on good terms with someone. But for now she didn't want to give in to what Ryan was saying although it made sense, and maybe it was the tiny buzz she had, but she knew that that small blip wasn't what made her decide. She was fully aware of her choices, and she knew that she was just being stubborn.

"Maybe you're right," she huffed lightly. "But I don't know, Ry. I just don't see it being the same for me. He feels defensive for no reason and looking to the future isn't going to exactly make our situation any better, considering that we live in the present and the present Geoff is being an asshole."

Ryan laughed adorably, his actual laugh instead of the small chuckles he gave sometimes on moderately funny things. It didn't last for more than a few seconds, but Dakota kind of wished that it would have stuck around forever because it made her stomach flutter and her heart swell minimally. Upon realizing _what the fuck she actually just thought_ , she shook it out of her head and focused on their topic.

"There's no doubt about that. But all I ask is that you try to be civil. It won't be like this for long," his low voice cooed.

"Hopefully you're right to assume that."

Ryan's face again rotated, looking down upon Dakota, and this time she returned it, her eyes leaning upwards into his own. They glinted in the light, making it hard for her to really listen to him because _damn those haunting eyes, always in my mind since the Davis building night._

"Who said I'm assuming? I just know these things." 

"What are you, some kind of weird mystique who can tell the future now?"

"Is that what you want me to be?" his voice was childish and it caused her to smirk.

"Are you just trying to do one of those 'tell me what I want to hear' things? 'Cause if so, I don't know if I want to hear you say you're really a mystique or not. Being yourself is just enough," Dakota teased him.

He pursed his lips a bit to act like he was thinking about it, earning an eye roll from Dakota, and it took him a minute, but he finally came up with something to say.

"So you're telling me you want me to be a mystique but you also don't want me to be one? That's a little confusing honestly. You're gonna have to decide what role you want me to play because costumes at the... adult store aren't as cheap as you might think they are, and plus I need to show off my amazing legs, remember?"

Dakota couldn't hold in her laugh at his ridiculous statement, and she almost doubled over from the fit, taking a bit to regain her composure. 

"You can always make a conversation turn one way to another in no time, you know that?" she said when the laughing was all out of her system.

"Eh, I do what I can with the little amount of genuine personality I was given. Gets kind of hard to improvise all the time, but I somehow make it work."

Ryan grinned, and weirdly it was like a beacon in the dark, a reassuring thing that she grew accustomed to as they spent time together. That sign always soothed her, made her feel welcome and wanted and sure of herself, and it was hard for her to really explain but just like how being alone with him made her feel secure, so did his smile.

The smile that greeted her every single time they met and the one that departed from her when they left each other when the time came to split. The same smile that she saw for the first time when he pulled off his mask, joking that his face was another mask. The smile that accompanied his beautiful, almost dream like features.

The smile that once again made her heart flutter underneath its comfort. 

As the two of them stood, almost frozen in time, eyes not ready to depart, Dakota suddenly felt weird. She felt like she was nervously waiting for something to happen, like there was something that was _supposed_ to happen. Her gut feeling was telling her that there's supposed to be something else.

And it wasn't just her gut, but her mind swimming and her heart racing and her fingertips trembling involuntarily. Like an unknown factor that she didn't know of was forcing its way in and trying to get the air to be filled with its presence. 

Her mind, jumbling thoughts and images of him, of them together and laughing and talking and being witty. The little tidbits about him, like his features, the way he walks that pulled her into a trance that almost dragged her into the apartment she was in, his laugh and they way he got her to walk away from the fight upstairs and how he practically saved her the night they met by telling Michael not to hurt her, and the protective hand on her shoulder when they stormed into her beach home.

And the images made her heart do a flip, shudder, move underneath the wonderful thoughts and she didn't know how to control it because she never felt that way before, all nervous and jittery and having an aching heart that she still had no fucking clue what it meant. 

All she knew was that at one point she kind of felt for the man and now it was like she couldn't control her feelings because they were overflowing into themselves and taking over parts of her body where she had never felt these things or thought these things or whatever it was that was going on inside of her.

Dakota felt the internal conflict bubble and bubble and it wasn't just then, it was everything leading up to that moment that happened between that both of them that she could have barely admired or noticed and now it was like those things were all forming together and forming and forming to this buildup that didn't make any sense, other than something was supposed to happen. Nothing matched to her and that was the worst of it.

And then as if every thing she just said to herself about nothing making sense, Dakota was moving away from where she was and towards Ryan, hand running to the back of his neck and pulling him closer, down to her face and smashing her lips on to his without any warning to him or herself even.

Ryan was so startled that he almost fell on top of her, literally, like taking them to the ground with his weight, so when they both started to move, he instead freed his hands from his pockets, throwing one out quickly to stop them on the window, the other guiding itself to her waist and making sure she wasn't going to fall.

Dakota made no move to stop their lips from connecting, and instead this motion prompted her to place both of her hands on either side of his defined yet slight baby face, letting one slide up into his hair and playing with the dirty blond strands that she loved to watch fall out of place.

Noticing that he still wasn't relaxed or exactly kissing back because he was too busy with their safety, Ryan finally let go and tightened the hand on her waist, fingers clenching the shirt that was right underneath the reach of his fingertips for something to hold on to for his own stability. His other hand still had them both propped up, safely and out of the way of the floor. He deepened the kiss, licking her bottom lip like an invite, and she let him in without hesitation.

The world didn't spin. The life outside or in the building suddenly didn't exist, and the fact that Dakota had never exactly done this so passionately or that Ryan had never done it so meaningfully didn't mean anything either. It was two people stopping a buildup that had been there since the beginning, since the mystery unfolded that made them so interested in each other.

She didn't want it to stop. 

He didn't want it to stop.

And they didn't. Just kept going at the same pace, heads turning on occasion because the even, smooth flow made them out of instinct and comfort. And it was like it was going to last a lifetime.

But when they stopped for air, Dakota- no matter how bad her body was telling her, her mind, her heart, her fingertips that still trembled while tangled into his hair, all telling her not to- pulled away and gave him a glance. She didn't have a bad feeling. She had a really, really good one, one that she didn't want to go away just like she wished they never had to breathe so the kiss didn't have to end.

Yet the good feeling didn't stop her. It was just Dakota herself, completely unsure of what was going on. It felt like it was too much, like she was so into him and she didn't admit it for the longest time but she knew it all along. And there she was, getting the thing that she was telling herself she wanted, the person that she tried not to want but couldn't resist. 

And as she stood there, unmoving, pinned but not really pinned beneath him, she made herself believe that she couldn't do it.

"I-I'm sorry," Dak mumbled sheepishly, head going to the floor and arms falling limply at her side like a timid rag doll. Ryan's brow furrowed, and he let go of her waist, pulling away from her slightly.

"About what?" his question came out disappointed, apparent in his voice, but he didn't care.

"I-I just, I gotta go."

"Why? Are you... Are you okay?"

 _What the hell are you doing?!_ her brain screamed at her as she cast him a small glance, looks haunting him.

"I honestly don't know. I'm sorry, Ryan."

Dakota moved around the man, who stood confused and worried as if he did something wrong, wondering to himself if he really did. But he didn't. He didn't initiate the kiss. He didn't do anything to make her uncomfortable, to make her scared, nothing at all. In fact her made her feel weightless, like a feather.

 _Don't you walk away, Dakota!_ she demanded to herself as her actual body went to the door. 

Before she exited the apartment, completely upset with her stupid self and her goddamn stupid impulses, Dakota shot a glance from her shoulder, opening the door just enough that she slipped halfway through the crack and into the hallway before stopping. Her heart broke when she saw Ryan in the same spot, devastated, disoriented, something she couldn't quite put a finger on. 

_Go back! You have a chance, go back to him!_

He had half a mind to chase after her, confront her, pull her into another kiss where this time he wouldn't let go because he couldn't let go of her, he couldn't. Yet he chose not to and although the motivation was the there, the desire, the emotion, he couldn't make his physical body move. 

_Don't you say it, don't you dare leave this apartment, so help me God-_ Dakota cut herself off.

"I'm sorry."

And with that, the woman disappeared from the doorway, away into her own apartment a door over, leaving Ryan to himself and his thoughts and his confusion. 

He didn't understand what was going on. He didn't want to understand. He wanted her back in front of him, even if it was just to talk. He wanted her presence, her laugh, her cute little scowl that sat on her face when she was angry. He wanted her stubbornness, the way she ran her hand through her hair when it got even the littlest bit in her face, her sarcasm, her voice, anything that had to do with her.

Ryan wanted her with all of his might, and it took him this long to realize that he didn't just like her, he needed her. He needed her and he wanted Dakota to need him the way he did, because sure, if he never met her there would be no this, but the point was he would have been missing out. 

There was no way that he could see a life without her, whether it be they stay platonic or take it to another level. Ryan just needed her in his life, and he knew that there was no life worth living without her because she filled the void, the emptiness, the part of him that stayed behind locked doors, the one that controlled his alter ego. She forced him to forget the monster that he thought he was, the one who had no feelings, and Dakota Dayley made him feel those emotions.

God, what was he supposed to do?

Ryan sighed, shutting his eyes and lolling his head backwards to dwell on what had just happened, letting out a huff of air. 

"What _did_ just happen?" he questioned, taking a breath and finally stepping towards the stairs to get to his bedroom, knowing that the night was going to be long, but the next day was going to be longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one was so short, but I wanted it to be considering last chapter and plus I was just too excited for this chapter, all of the one on one with these two. I hope you enjoyed, tell me what you think! Love y'all <3


	13. Chapter 13

Geoff was tired.

He was absolutely, completely, utterly and inexplicably exhausted and tired, and whatever other words define loss of sleep and the feeling of drowsiness, he was all of those words.

The night was long and it was harsh, because the event that unfolded in the conference room didn't sit right with him, and he decided that at this point there was no way he could have controlled what happened or go back in time to make it right, or whatever the hell it was that could have made it not happen whatsoever.

Because it took him all night- staying up in bed, fidgeting around and rolling in the sheets before getting up and trying to find a way to busy himself- to figure out that maybe, just maybe, he had been a serious asshole at the meeting and deserved to get punched in the face. He wanted to punch himself in the face.

Geoff was usually not the kind of person to back down on a decision he made, but he was seriously having second thoughts the more it sat in his mind and sloshed around, facing him to remember every word, every movement, every emotion left inside of that elongated room. Letting a decision down meant weakness, and he hated weakness, but guilt was always a strong thing in his life that caused him to be soft at the most vulnerable times, such as one that questioned his very authority.

He was a people person, it had always been that way, and by that it really meant that he could get very... emotional. He empathized with everyone that he cared about, and to an extent, other people who he knew, which meant Dakota. It's not like he hated the girl. She was funny, bold, brave, skillful, charming. The whole package. He never hated her, unless he counted the Triads incident that caused their paths to cross, but that was a whole other thing in itself.

There were no problems between them, nothing at all that he could think of that made the altercation happen, other than the fact that he concluded to earlier that evening: he just felt threatened.

And it was possible he just didn't want a newcomer to tell him what to do, but thinking back on it, she didn't demand anything of him at all. Dakota simply suggested a resolution to their problem and he just shot her like a dog with immense rabies and-

_Geoff, stop, man. You're not getting anywhere looking back on it. You made your decision and you're not going back. What are you saying, trying to take her side? You put yourself here, and you're gonna stay with it, because you run the crew, and you have to put your foot down. No leniency._

He was right. He wasn't allowed to show mercy now, let alone because his more than human thoughts were telling him to start acting like a titty baby, the one that cried during the Titanic. Geoff didn't show emotion when he was set in his ways, and there was no exception now.

Then again, she was just trying to look out for the crew and she wanted to help and-

_No, fucking stop it. You're supposed to be ruthless, not a damn pity party._

The tattooed individual sighed, his palms smoothing over his face as he sat on the edge of his bed, clad in nothing but his boxers. His fingers ran over the moustache and the little amount of stubble starting to collect on his chin and the sides of his face.

"I'm gonna have to cut you one day, as much as it pains me," he mumbled, one last touch of his wondrous moustache before groaning and standing. It was time to get ready for the day, whatever the fuck the day had planned because he sure as hell didn't know.

He found his way to the walk in closet across the room, the sliding door still open from using it the day before. The man let himself in and pondered around the spacious little room, shirts on top hangers, pants on bottom, shoes underneath, and hoodies and whatever else on the shelf above all of the other clothing. 

He decided to go simple and picked a charcoal shirt with a simple design, gray jeans, and his classically torn up, black skater shoes that never failed him. When he was dressed and satisfied, he left the closet and proceeded to head down his stairs and into the kitchen where he left his phone charging overnight. There was a message from Griffon that he immediately replied to, and when he did, he took the phone from the charger and placed it in his front pocket.

Geoff was tired, had no idea what the day had in store for him, and he was conflicted but not really because he knew he shouldn't be guilty, but yet he still was.

Okay, he was conflicted then.

The point was that none of those were a good combination, especially for him.

Geoff really wanted to get drunk right about then.

As if his thoughts had been read on what exactly he was supposed to do today, the phone in his pants started to buzz continually and wouldn't stop, earning another groan to escape his lips as he felt into his pocket and plucked the phone from its contents. When he turned it around, he was surprised to see the name that was lit onto the screen, and it took a little hesitation to decide whether he wanted to answer it or not.

"Ah, shit. I have to," he muttered, knowing it wouldn't be wise to avoid the call. Geoff slid his thumb over the screen, answering the phone, and when it connected, he put the device to his ear.

"Geoff," a voice came from the other side.

"Yeah?" he tried to sound hardened, but in all honesty, he knew it didn't sound at all like he planned it to. In fact, his tone was friendlier than he planned, and he mentally kicked himself and called himself an idiot.

"Uh, I think I have some information you want to hear."

"Look, Dak, if it's-"

"No!" There was a small sigh on the other side. "Lest got to digging and found out a lot about Lahey. And I think it's something you'd want to hear from him."

Geoff felt relieved upon her words and he took a break in his mind to process what she was saying. Maybe his decision wouldn't be so hard now if they knew what this guy was about. It wasn't all bad, right?

"Alright, good news. When can we talk to him?"

"He doesn't exactly want to talk on the phone. Paranoia and what not. He wants to meet at his place."

"Piece of cake-" Geoff started but was cut off quickly. 

"Look, let me just tell you that he's not the most... friendly person you'll know. And he's a hoarder. And a paraplegic. And obsessive. So, uh, just a warning before we go over there," she sounded kind of worried that he couldn't handle Lester in person, and it made him wonder what was so bad about this guy.

Besides, there was nothing Geoff thought he couldn't do. 

"Sounds like my ex-wife," Geoff chuckled to himself, earning a small laugh from the end of the line.

 _At least we both kind of forgot about yesterday_ , he thought nonchalantly. 

"Look, it'll be fine. I'm sure he can't be that bad."

"If you say so," Dakota retaliated before pausing to think of what she needed to say next. "Who do you want coming with us? Everyone, or just us and Jack, or the two of us?"

He thought for a minute if he really wanted to involve everyone, and when he realized that he actually didn't assign any jobs to anyone for the day, he thought it might be good that everyone gets briefed on who this stalker was and what Lester had to say about it.

"Yeah, go ahead and tell everyone to come. Can you send out individual messages? Group texts are annoying and the last time we had one, Gavin peppered it with notifications to annoy the shit out of us, so we stick to group conference calls unless group messages are necessary."

There was no reply from Dakota, and when it took a while for her to reply, Geoff got a tiny bit irritated because he had no idea what was going on, but he hated not being answered when asking a question.

"Dakota?" his voice was impatient. "Are you there?"

"Yeah," the reply was hardly noticeable, and he didn't understand why she got cold feet all of a sudden, but he didn't want to ask.

"Alright, good. Text them and tell them to meet us in twenty minutes in the lobby."

"I've got it covered."

With that, the call was over and done, and Geoff let his pocket reclaim the device, going into the kitchen to make something to eat before heading out. 

Meanwhile, Dakota was hesitant to complete her boss's request.

She didn't want to comply to it, she didn't want to at all because a certain someone was eating away at her thoughts and took up her whole night and now her whole morning. And she didn't want to text that certain someone because she didn't know what was going to happen if she did.

The kiss with Ryan was stuck on her brain the minute she walked out of the door the night before, hell it was stuck on her mind the minute that it happened.

And just like Geoff, it kept her up where she couldn't sleep, couldn't think straight. She concluded that she was a fucking idiot and should have never left his apartment, should have stayed longer and never have even stopped herself because her heart was aching and her head was racing and she felt like she made the biggest mistake ever.

Dakota felt all kind of bad and upset to the point where she literally couldn't forgive herself for stopping, for her sake and for Ryan's sake, and now everything was going to be awkward and weird and she didn't like not knowing what was gonna happen next with the both of them.

And it sucked. It sucked so bad.

Yet there was nothing that Dak could do to take it back, to erase and make the right decision this time and tell herself that she was just scared for whatever reason it was. No matter how bad she wanted to make it right, to fix it, it wasn't gonna happen, and it made her stomach churn.

It took a lot of time to actually remind herself that she had to text everyone individually to let them know to meet up in the lobby in twenty minutes, and after a lot of sighing and hesitation, she finally looked down at her phone and began to go to all of the crew members' names and start messaging them. When Ryan's name popped up next, the last one that she pulled up, she paused and stared at the letters that spelled out his name, then shook her head and sent the same message to him that everyone else got. 

It didn't take long for the twenty minutes to roll past and for the crew to get down to the lobby, all crowding together and laughing and talking while waiting on the last member to drag in, the only one who wasn't there yet amongst Geoff, Dakota, Jack, Ray, Michael, and Gavin: Ryan.

Dakota tried to look as inconspicuous as possible, like nothing happened when she left the conference, let alone that whole incident never happened, but it was hard to focus on being herself when her thoughts ran a mile a minute, especially about the missing man that she tried so hard not to even think about. Even though all she wanted was for him to walk through the door and make her ache, her nervousness go away with his smile and his face that was a sight for sore eyes.

Everything about Dak was sore, especially the two organs that seemed to yearn and wish for him for reasons unknown, things she never experienced before like that, and maybe if he just walked in from the elevator he could make those things go away, make them better and not hurt.

She just wanted him to make it the same as they felt when they were alone together, safe and secure, because she didn't feel that way knowing she was alone and forcing a smile, not knowing what was next for them. Dakota never felt this way before and she didn't know why it just kept growing and growing, especially when she messed up.

_What the hell is this supposed to be?_

Finally, the elevator dinged, and out stepped Ryan, turning the heads of everyone else.

"Took you long enough," Michael teased when he saw the man, but his smile immediately turned into a straight line when he saw the state that Ryan was in. Everyone's smile diminished to be honest.

Ryan didn't look lively, not the Ryan everyone knew so well, and to say the least he was kind of zombiefied. His hair was disheveled to a point that it looks like he didn't even comb through it, his eyes had slight bags underneath but were very noticeable, and his posture was slouched, not tall and sturdy as usual. Dakota's heart dropped, and she had to stop herself from running up to him and jumping on him and never letting go.

He walked slowly over to the group, who was now silent and didn't dare to breathe, because it was weird to witness their friend like that. The ray of sunshine that didn't exist at that moment in time. 

When he approached the crowd that was formed together, not sure whether to talk to him and ask him what was up, Ryan noticed all of their demeanors towards him, the wide eyes and the closed mouths, and when he barely got a glimpse of Dakota, he realized that he needed to act normal, make up a lie for why he looked the way he did, because moping over what happened last night wasn't going to fly.

"I know, I know," he said, putting his hands up and forcing a smile. "It was rough waking up because I went to bed at six, thinking I wasn't going anywhere and it'd be the perfect time to binge watch that show Jack told me about." 

_Half true,_ he thought. _The going to sleep part at least, except I stayed up thinking about the next day until it gave me a headache._

"I told you it was good!" Jack exclaimed matter of factly, and Ryan nodded with his grin still apparent.

"Yeah, it hooked itself into me and didn't let up until I finished the first season."

Ryan was completely bullshitting at that point because he didn't even know what the fuck the show was about, and he more than likely wasn't going to watch it because he wasn't that interested. Plus, he had other things on his mind, more important than a show .

Satisfied, Geoff began to order everyone about their next move, and they turned to listen to him intently, not thinking anything else of Ryan's appearance or how Dakota didn't immediately saunter over to him and strike up a conversation as their leader was talking, like always. It was just an off day probably.

And in honesty, it was an off day for Dakota and Ryan. They felt weird not by each other's sides, her elbowing him when he made a stupid joke and them laughing about it while Geoff got irritated and told them to shut up or get a room. It was strange to not even feel the other's presence as one was crowded in the front and the other was towards the back.

It still didn't make sense to either of them what happened, and just as much as the other, it ate them up with curiosity and some form of guilt. Whatever did happen, it didn't seem real, kind of like a dream yet Ryan and Dak both accepted that it was reality, no matter how terrible reality was currently. 

But the problem- was it a problem? The... situation amongst them had to be underground, not out in the open where everyone else would get involved. It couldn't get in the way of their work and the way of how their friends perceived them, for the sake of themselves and the sake of the crew, or else the situation would extend to be bigger than it really should be.

Confusingly and all on their own, with feelings mixing in every minute, they decided individually to ignore the kiss, ignore the night before, and continue on like it hadn't even occurred. 

If it were that simple.

Geoff suggested that everyone split and take two cars, offering that Dakota take the lead one and Jack take the back one. When there was no objection, they all headed out the doors of the building and headed to the back where the garage awaited them, and with the click of a button on a small remote, the large door opened and revealed the rather large garage and its contents. 

There were heist cars, cars for special occasions, armored cars, huge trucks, anything that wasn't a personal vehicle and that had wheels. Like clockwork, the crew moved swiftly to the SUV's that they regularly used whenever they went out all together, and as if it were a routine, the lads hopped into the car with Dakota, the gents taking their own car.

She led both teams out, Gavin in the passenger seat and Michael and Ray in the back, but not willingly as the three fought to get the front seat, and somehow, scrawny Gavin ended up winning. It was funny to Dak to watch the three scrap over one seat, but at the same time, they fought over who was supposed to be first player in a virtual game one time, so nothing surprised her anymore. 

The group turned up the radio too loud, laughed, had fun, and on occasion, someone would try to rip the wheel from Dakota's hands just to mess with her and the car following the whole way. Sure, maybe they were going to kill each other that way, but at least they were having fun doing it, because to them, the only thing that mattered was the laughs and thrills they got when with one another.

Never a dull moment for team lads and... ladette? 

The gents on the other hand were a little more calm, with Jack and Geoff in the front, and a tired Ryan leaning against the window of the backseat to prop his head up and keep himself from sleeping soundlessly during the ride. Geoff could have been doing the same thing, but he knew how to handle his exhaustion and make it look more like a façade than anything. Ryan? Not so much.

It didn't help that Jack was practically peppering him with questions about, "What'd you like best about the show?" or some other thing that Ryan didn't quite catch because first off, what the fuck was he talking about, and second off, he knew nothing about the show in actuality. 

Trying to quell his friend, he instead gave him short, non-descriptive answers, saying he didn't really remember because he was up for so long that everything seemed to jumble together, or random things like that. Jack took his answers satisfyingly and finally turned up the classic rewind station that was playing throughout the car, and the three of the men either hummed gently to themselves, or kept pretty quiet until a small conversation boiled over.

The drive took a little longer than Dakota expected, but then again, they were pretty far from where Lester lived in Murietta Heights since it was practically on the outskirts of town and definitely no where near the inner city. When she took a right turn into a neighborhood that curved upwards on an incline, littered with lowdown houses that were far too close together for anyone's comfort and fenced off to themselves by either poorly built cinder block walls or chainlink fences that were falling apart, Dakota confirmed that they were finally in the right place. 

To be fair, the whole crew thought that this guy was gonna be living on private property, with a huge yard to himself and miles away from any form of civilization and booby traps all over his lawn and house like a doomsday prepper, but when they got packrat instead of end of the world survivalist, it made them wonder all the more what this guy was truly about.

Dakota parked in front of a house with stairs leading up to it on the left side of the block, a sickly green color surrounded by some of the best built, keep in mind small, walls in the area, which was saying a lot because-0 even those walls were too unstable to be considered security for the person on the inside of it. There were signs posted everywhere about trespassing and cameras and violators and all kinds of crazy things that could actually ward off most of the people who lived in the neighborhood, and that was probably the point.

On the top of the stairs leading to the door, the front porch was small considering that there was a little fence cutting off any access to the windows that were completely barred, but the other half of the fence was hanging off of a ledge. Shrubs shrouded one of the areas that had yellow, dead grass and right next to the car were several trashcans that overflowed with tons of black trashbags, not to mention bags on the side of them. The only other significant landmark of the place was an absolutely dead palm tree on the left of the stairs that spiraled off to itself, but went no where without leaves and made the whole lot just look like a clustered, trashy mess. 

Dak gazed for a few seconds, remembering all of the times she came to that place for job assignments, or when she worked with the Unholy Trinity, they came to this place after their score together went smoothly. They tried to coax Lester out of his hidey hole, offering to take him to get drinks, but it ended up in nearly giving the man a heart attack from all of the yelling he threw at them to get out, and the four went on their merry way and went to a bar to get shitfaced.

There were memories that came with the rundown house, but most of them were not of import. 

The woman pressed her lips together and turned to her friends, who observed the house as if they were suddenly the richest people in the city, judging the home and almost wishing they didn't have to step foot inside.

"So, the uppity asshole that you talked up like an overly obsessive conspirator doesn't live in some place to keep his identity sealed, but this shithole?!" Michael asked, not really sure whether to laugh or to criticize the logic.

Dakota nodded.

"And isn't he like, a goddamn millionaire from that UD heist you told us about?"

"I believe she said that each of those lads earned twenty two mil a piece, or more," Gavin chimed in with all of his whimsical wisdom.

Michael paused as his friends awaited what he was going to say next, which came out in a yell that all of them were actually expecting/used to.

"And he didn't think to like, I don't know, _buy a new fucking house_ with those millions of dollars instead of live in this piece of shit?!"

"Michael, calm down, sir!" Ray laughed along with his other friends as they all began to exit the car, Michael the last in tow to get out and shut the door behind him. 

"I mean, it's common sense! If you have money and live like this, you buy something better! I'd buy this whole fucking neighborhood and then tear it down to build like, a fucking castle, I don't know, shit that rich people live in!" His voice was still loud and angry, so much that it caused on-looking neighbors around them to stare wide eyed, some scrambling back inside their homes in fear that this livid man was going to actually do something.

The gents were also getting out of their car, Geoff already commenting on how terrible the whole place looked, earing agreement from Jack and Ryan. Once they heard that Michael was raging about "having common sense and getting a better place," it only made them laugh and again agree with him.

The group huddled in front of the concrete stairs, the oncoming gusts of wind suddenly hitting them and sending chills to their bodies as they gathered around one another. The sky and the day quickly turned from sunny to cloudy within minutes, foreshadowing the storm that was supposed to be coming shortly.

As the weather predicted, coming from their right and up the elevated block, far beyond the highway leading out of the city, huge thunder clouds formed together in one big area, their dark colors of gray and black overtaking most of the sky out towards that way. Once the storm hit, Los Santos was going to stay dark, cloudy, rainy, and gloomy for the rest of the week, keeping the sun and the hot air out for a few days. 

Geoff noticed how bad the sky was starting to look and he clasped his hands together, getting attention of his crew.

"I think it's time we get this on the road so we can get back before the storm hits and strands us in this shit show, so, Dakota, why don't you show us this Lester guy?" he recommended, facing Dakota who was in the midst of the younger men, almost stowed away. She nodded, taking a lead up to the stairs, looking over her shoulder to face everyone else, her dark hair whipping in the wind and with her motions that she remembered she really needed to dye again to get all the hairs even in color.

"Right this way, gentleman," she mocked, making her way up and towards the wooden door, the sound of footfalls behind her and rustling of clothes, not to mention the noises of the wind mixing in with it all. 

When she approached the door, her eyes flicked to camera in the corner of the house, connected to the roof and the wall. As soon as she spotted it, the camera spun quickly to match her gaze, and she flipped it off and rolled her eyes.

"It's me, Lest, obviously, so just let us in," Dakota huffed as if she had said this line a thousand and one times, and in reality, she really had.

There was a long pause, long enough that all of the men behind Dak assumed that the door was never going to open, but finally, when the wind got harder and the clouds started to rush in, the door unlocked from the inside by some kind of mechanism, and it slightly parted from the doorframe. Dakota took no time in opening the door as wide as it would go and stepping inside, obviously knowing what she was doing, and the guys followed her as quick as she was going.

Before all of them could even get through the hallway behind their female companion and close the door, a nasally, almost annoying voice sounded throughout the house.

"Close the goddamn door, this isn't your parents' house and I'm not your maid! I can't fucking clean up after you, considering I'm in a wheelchair and all!"

Dakota sighed heavily, not ready to see the man again because he was always seriously just a thorn in her side at all times and had never been anything better to her, besides the fact that he helped her get back into the life and made money easy to obtain. But that still didn't mean she wanted to associate with him.

She entered a room on the right towards the end of the hallway, cluttered with literally everything ever that the eye could see. There were boxes, papers, machines, whatever else that could fit into a living room space and be completely packed together where the only part of the room that was available was the floor.

In the midst of all the cluster, a setup with computer monitors and screens and ancient looking kind of machines that seemed like they should be inside of an office instead of a ghetto house in the middle of a crooked neighborhood. The screens looked like they were monitoring a few places around the city, one of them even being the Fake AH Crew's HQ, which would have crept them out in other cases, until they remembered that this man was on the tail of their stalker, and that's why they were there.

The rest of the crew tried to fit into the room, and it was a bit hard considering how many of them there was and how little space was actually there for their use, but they somehow made it work, bringing the back of the crew up to the front, meaning that Ryan was finally close to Dakota (as he had been pushed next to her to make room,) and neither knew how to react, but remembered they needed to forget in order to move forward.

It didn't stop them from giving a parting glance to one another for a split second, and when Dakota realized just how tired Ryan actually looked, her heart fell to the floor, and she gave him a tiny, closed mouthed smile, hoping it'd bring some kind of resemblance to his face and make him look more like the person she knew so well. He returned it just as small as she had, and the two then turned away.

Dakota's eyes scoped out the room, and she felt like she was going crazy because she heard Lester's voice just as everyone else had, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was a surprise he wasn't in his little working space because the man practically never moved from it, but when a wheelchair's rusty wheels began to squeak and a rude, familiar voice started to work it's way from the back of the house, yelling about getting out of the way, she glanced to the doorway they just came in from and saw her friends dividing a pathway in the middle of themselves.

Emerging from the pathway that was made, cussing and giving dirty looks to the men who still had their foots too far into the makeshift aisle, was Lester Crest, clad in wheelchair and all. He was pudgy, even sitting in the chair, cane in hand and glasses propped lightly on a pale, aging face that suited the little bit of very light brown hair he had on the top of his mostly bald head, tag team with the receding hairline. 

He wore his famous plaid green shirt, sleeves rolled up and buttoned all the way to his neck, jeans slack and fading and telling a story of how old the pair really was from all of the distress and mismatched color. The shoes were even older sneakers, rag tag and just as wore out as the house itself. 

Lester's eyes that eerily searched the room, every face and every person to match it, were narrowed, making him look even more worn down than usual as he judged the people that he didn't recognize. The five o' clock shadow that always defined his chubby face was the only well taken care of part of his whole person.

This was not what any of the guys had expected, but for Dakota, she was tired of seeing the grouchy man, and he wasn't a sight for sore eyes.

When Lester finally wheeled himself towards the computer monitors where Dak and Ryan stood, he stopped in front of the woman, eyeballing her as if he didn't know who she was either. He dared to show any recognition, instead his face overtook with a kind of disgust that a rich, snobby housewife would show when forced into the same room with a homeless man, which in this case, should have probably been the exact opposite.

"About time you came to visit me," the same, nasally voice stated bitterly. "You're terrible to keep around for company unless it's for business, Dakota."

The wheelchair rolled to the little station that was set up and then did a three sixty to face the people in the home, Dakota leaning backwards against a table that was holding contraptions next to the setup, and folding her arms across her chest while crossing one leg over the other. She let her head fall up to the ceiling, sighing and looking like she regretted ever coming over in the first place.

"'Cause you're just the biggest joy to be around, Lest," Dak mumbled loud enough that everyone could hear what she said. "Wouldn't want to miss seeing you for the world."

"Oh, bite me, D," he intoned and waved a hand at her as if to dismiss her.

She rolled her eyes and again flipped off the man as she did earlier before they entered his home, and Lester just laughed to himself, obviously either amused... or pissed off, whichever one, it actually wasn't very clear.

His lightly colored eyes danced from person to person, not sure whether to ask who they were or to make them all get out of his house because he only expected Dakota and her little boss to come. He didn't invite the whole goddamn posse, but there was no way he could just ask them to leave because he guessed they were there to know what was going on, and if Dakota trusted those people enough, then maybe he could too.

Dakota was always reliable in her work, and even though they were both complete assholes to each other, it didn't mean he couldn't expect her to hold her own and to mean everything she said about whatever the case may be. She never had any reason to just straight out lie and to leave him hanging by himself in a boat without a paddle. There was never any distrust between the two, because no matter how many times they got into it, they were professional about their work and serious about problems.

Lester never really knew why he got into so many fights and arguments with the woman, he just did. Maybe it was because he was just a lonely old hermit who couldn't be nice to save his life, and sure, he was annoying and he knew it, but just like the way he irritated Michael and Trevor and Franklin, he irritated her and she irritated him to no end. That was just how they worked for some reason.

And yet just because they couldn't socially stand each other, it didn't stop them from the job assignments and the scores and the deals and whatever it was that Lester assigned Dakota onto, which she did swiftly and without ease. Both were, no doubt, good at what they did, and that was the reason that they continued to do business with one another up until her involvement with the crew.

And possibly, _maybe_ , Lester got a little jealous that when she found other people to keep her busy just because he knew her and worked with her and helped her get back into the game. He didn't know why, whether it was that he was just too clingy due to his state of internal loneliness or the fact that he felt some kind of ownership over her for God knows why, but he was just kind of envious while observing all of the guys who she was so infatuated with lately.

He wished he could be longed after like that, but fuck that, right?

When Lester finally decided just to look up their names later when they leave, he began to delve right into the matter at hand.

"Okay, so, onto Lahey."

-

The storm was ravaging downtown to a point where if someone walked outside to leave work or a coffee shop or something else, then they would probably literally get blown away and never be seen again until the storm subdued. The wind wasn't even the worst factor, but it was the rain and the lightning and the thunder. As the rain and the wind pounded concrete and buildings and streets, the lightning cracked every few seconds, followed by monstrous thunder that could shake the Maze Building down to rubble in the streets below, the FIB and IAA buildings too.

But did that stop Dawson Lahey from sitting alone in his office, nearly on the top floor of the FIB's headquarters, the window-walls surrounding the floor seeming as if they were about to collapse inside and stab every single missing person that should have been there that day? It indeed didn't stop him, it almost encouraged him.

Lahey sat by himself, the only one in an office that should have been filled with dozens of people, but they all left before the impending storm came and took them away. Yet he was too far buried into his work, too far involved into the members of the Fake AH Crew that he was trying so desperately to surface. 

Ever since the girl escaped him and figured out that he was tailing her, because he was a freaking idiot when it came to following someone apparently, Lahey was obsessed, and he couldn't figure out if it was just the way that she dipped and evaded his grasp, intriguing him even further, or the fact that he was going to be the only one who might possibly stop one of the most underground, yet dangerous crews in the city.

The reason was pretty mysterious to himself, but it didn't matter because there he was, alone and being illuminated by the light from his computer monitor as all of the electricity in the building cut off a long time ago. The darkness from the storm that desecrated the town wasn't enough to get him away from his research and redeeming his title. 

Lahey didn't exactly make the best choices in his time joining the force, and he got into the wrong crowd of cop friends that were a little too crooked for his liking, but they pressured him and before he knew it, Dawson was gambling with criminals and putting weapons from the weapons locker on the LS black market and trading evidence, as in drugs, for intel on the newest crime bosses or whatever to make it seem like he was still doing his job. And after years of being crooked, Lahey finally got caught when he was a little too sloppy on one of his trades and shot a man who tried to rob him without giving the intel that he promised.

After then, it was rough waters for Lahey, and while he talked himself out of most of the things he did that overstepped protocol and FIB handbook rules, he was put on leave for months with minimum pay. It wasn't until the chief came up to his house personally and told him that if he didn't get on the case he was assigning him the right way, then he wouldn't have a job anymore.

He couldn't object, he didn't have a choice. It was either his job or living under an underpass for the rest of his tired, miserable life, and he chose to try and make himself one of the best agents again, but the correct way. Not only was he doing it for himself, but all of his friends that too were in deep waters for their more than troublesome decisions.

And he was getting closer and closer everyday to knowing everything about the crew. He knew where they lived and worked, the next score they were trying to hit, and he knew the name of a one Dakota Dayley, because it was the only person he could identify since he fully saw her appearance and researched her until he tracked down her name and information, which wasn't abundant, but it was enough. And he was starting to assume that this was where the Vagabond, that vigilante fuck, disappeared to three years ago, although that couldn't be confirmed and was just a theory based on what he had been observing.

There was no way that this crew would get away from him as long as he was alive.

No way in hell.

-

"So, he's crooked?" Jack asked Lester, and Lest replied with a nod, turning from his computer and looking back at the crew that was curiously huddled around the man and his wheelchair, listening intently to every word he spoke.

"Yeah, and he's looking for a way to get his title back as 'one of the good guys,'" Lester added harshly, totally criticizing the man for sounding like a tired cliché. 

Crooked just like Burnie," Dakota mumbled, giving a glance towards Geoff. "I really hope he's not one of the guys who got caught in that little group that Lahey did. Maybe we should consider bringing him in to help though if he didn't."

Geoff nodded in agreement, thinking it was a good idea. "Yeah, I'll call him when we get back to HQ and see what's going on with him."

"Good, good," Lester hummed. "It'd be nice to have an inside source to help me see what's really going on in that office. You're talking about Burns, right?"

"Yeah, the same one," Dakota said, earning a confused stare from Geoff, and she quickly explained, "I brought Burnie in one time to help Lester and I on a job one time, so he's acquainted with the name."

Geoff was content with the answer, but a few of the crew members were still kind of confused on the whole Lahey situation and whether they should even continue on with the heist while this man was pursuing them. They were really starting to consider Dakota's proposition again, the one from the meeting.

Michael stepped out of his place with Gavin and shrugged his shoulders upwards. "So, is anyone gonna ask the question that I know we're all thinking? That maybe we shouldn't be heisting right now and just wait a fucking minute until this is all over? It's obvious the guy won't stop until we're all either dead or thrown into the pen."

"Yeah, I mean, that sounds pretty good right now, Geoff," Ray too stepped in to defend his friend, but one look from their leader and a shake of his head sent their thoughts down real quick.

"No," he stated sternly. "We're not cancelling anything, I already told you guys that this shit is going down and no one is stopping us from doing so."

"But, why, man? It makes more sense to just-"

"Ray, I swear to God, man, you're overstepping some serious bounds right now and you're not gonna like it if you cross them."

"Hey, whoa," Michael objected and got between Ray and Geoff, who seemed a little closer to each other than they were when they both started to talk. "There's no need for threats, we just think maybe it'd be a pretty good idea and-"

"And what, Michael?" Geoff said with a scrunched face, getting irritated far too easily. "You think it's a good idea because she-" he pointed at Dak across the room, still close to Ryan and acting as if they were fine, "suggested it? I swear it's like ever since she came along you guys are stuck up her ass like she's as great as sliced bread, fuck I don't know. But whatever it is, I'm tired of everyone trying to undermine my authority. You all seem to forget that what I say goes."

Gavin came out from his shell to put his piece into the conversation, completely confused as to why Geoff was snapping at them like that.

"Geoff, what's bothering you lately? You're going mental when we're just trying to make reasonable suggestions, and you act like we bloody killed your cat."

"I'm not in the mood to fucking listen to you jabbering on, Gavin," the boss sighed in discontent, and that's when Dakota finally stepped in to her friends' aid. She had enough of him being an asshole. 

"Hey, look, you might have a problem with me, but you don't have to take it out on them," she stated, still leaning on the table with her arms crossed, now looking up from where she gazed at the floor to watch Geoff and listen to what he was going to retaliate with.

Geoff scoffed. "I'm not in the mood to listen to you either, you said enough shit yesterday to last a lifetime."

 _Why are you doing this, Geoff?_ he asked himself, _this is exactly what kept you up last night!_

"Well apparently not enough because you're still walking all over me, and now your friends?" she started, disbelief apparent in her voice, "No, fuck that, you're not going to treat them like shit. Do it to me all you want since you can't stand me or the fact that I'm liked, but not to them."

 _Don't say anything, don't do it man,_ the voice in his head warded.

"You know what, Dakota? I do have a problem with you, and it's not that you're liked, no I don't give a flying _fuck_ about that. It's the fact that you've always thought you're hot shit."

"What the fuck?!" Dak almost yelled, lunging forward to do what she should have done the night before, but Ryan immediately grabbed her wrist and stopped her from going any further. He pulled her back to where she was, except now she was alert and ready for a fight if she had to start one. Ryan whispered into her ear, begged her to calm down and not do something that she would regret, and just like yesterday, Dakota hesitantly accepted what he was saying, but it didn't mean she let her guard down.

"When have I acted like that, Geoff? When? Please explain it to me because I've been dying to know why you shut me down at the meeting when I was just trying to save our asses, the ones that you're about to put on the line and risk for your ego!"

Geoff had enough. He had enough of her, enough of everyone, enough of _himself_. He was tired, he was conflicted, and he had enough.

"Dakota," he said more calmly, but the anger was still defined in his tenor voice. "Undermine me again, and I can cut you off real quick. And that's not a threat, it's a promise. Now, I've made up my goddamn mind, and we're doing this heist. You can either be with us and take Michael and Ray with you to obtain road spikes for our plan, or you can be against and go to your apartment and pack up your stuff and leave. Your choice."

For once, Dakota was silent with no idea what to say or what to do. She wanted nothing more than to leave his face collapsed into his skull, to make him pay for everything that he was saying, but she knew if she even attempted to say or do one more thing, then her time with the crew would be over, and she definitely wasn't ready for it to end and for her to leave her new family behind, going back to a life without Ray, Michael, Gavin, Jack...

Without Ryan. 

There was no way that she was going to let one smug and territorial man drive her away from the only people and the only thing that made her happy without her father in her world and away from Burnie and sometimes Lester and maybe the Unholy Trinity if she was as close to them as those three made it out to be. Geoff Ramsey was not going to take her away from the life that she finally started to love to live again, no matter how hard she wanted to rebel and to spite him just to piss him off.

If he truly wanted her to go do a surprise job assignment, then by God, Dakota was going to be there.

The room was silent, only filled with the harsh rain making itself known on the roof and the roar of thunder continually bombarding and shaking the infrastructure as everyone awaited an answer, something from Dakota while she seemed to be contemplating her decision.

The woman shrugged off Ryan's light hold on her wrist, and she pulled her keys from her pocket, turning to face Lester. 

"I'll let them debrief you on our heist plan and what's gonna go down, because I have work to do," she smirked, walking away and towards Michael and Ray, who didn't know what to do except stand there and stare. She nodded her head towards the door and put out an arm, gesturing for the two men to lead the way, to which they both looked at each other in surprise.

"Lead the way, guys, we need to be careful out in that storm," she said cheekily, and when they both finally understood and stepped in front of her and went outside, exiting the house, Dakota paused before stepping outside to meet them. She didn't dare give a look backwards, knowing all too well that everyone else was watching her. 

"Thanks for the opportunity, _boss_ ," the woman smiled to herself sarcastically, then followed her two friends into the darkness of the storm and the pounding rain, disappearing into the SUV that she brought and taking off into the faux night.


	14. Chapter 14

"What the fuck just happened back there?" Ray questioned in the car, sitting in the passenger seat while Dakota navigated from Lester's house in the terrible storm where she could barely see to some place where they could break into and get road spikes, preferably the police station that was miles from where Murietta Heights was.

Dakota huffed, trying her best to make sure that she wasn't going to hit another car when turning the vehicle to head back into the inner city, but then again, only they would be stupid enough to be driving out in something like this. She shook her head, all kinds of thoughts flooding her brain and words she wanted to say, but she didn't because she honestly just wanted to forget about Geoff.

"I don't know man, but did you hear the way he talked to us? He's lost his goddamn mind, finally," Michael stated, leaning his elbows onto the front two seats and poking his way through the middle of them to be in line with both Dak and Ray. "He's never been like that to us before, and it's bullshit, dude."

"It's my fault, guys," Dakota sighed, shaking her head and trying to avoid eye contact with the two men, keeping her eyes on the road that was barely visible and going an incredibly low speed to stay safe. "I still don't know exactly what I did, but he sure has a problem with me. The only reason he's acting like that is because I'm here."

Ray sternly turned towards his friend in the driver seat, his face hardened, and as soon as the words left her mouth, he stopped her. "Dakota, no. Don't think that way and seriously don't let him try and scare you away. I don't care what he says, you're here to stay and I'm not letting him make the choice to try and just throw you away like that."

The woman smiled softly to herself, almost laughing. "Oh, trust me, Ray, he's not scaring anyone. I'm not letting him take me away, you guys are just gonna have to be stuck with me and there's nothing you can do about, so strap yourselves in and be ready. I'm here for life, boys."

The air in the car drastically changed from gloomy and puzzled to bright and playful, despite how the exterior was, and it caused a smile to form immediately on Ray and Michael's faces. They knew that she didn't scare that easily, hell, if there was a way to scare her at all, and the fact that she was just as passionate about staying as they were made them remember just why they had fallen so easily susceptible to her personality and why they grew so close so quickly, Ray especially.

These were the two people who confided everything in each other and didn't not know one single thing about the other, the two who were inseparable just as much as she and Ryan were. When Ray wasn't with Tina, he was with Dakota, or Dakota and Gavin and Michael. Either of the three he was tied to, but she was definitely one of his biggest people to be with, and he loved every second of being in her presence.

Dakota was thankful she had someone like Ray because yes, she was close with everyone in the crew (minus Geoff of course,) but to have someone like Ray who literally knew so much about her that it was like she didn't know anything about herself at all, and the way that he was so supportive and caring for her and it was all platonic, it was pretty special to know that he was by her side at all given moments. 

And of course she thankful for Michael, too. He and Gavin were probably runner up to Ray and Ryan, being just as close, but in different aspects because when the three of them were together or even it was just her and one of them, they were complete clowns and pranksters. And Jack too. She went to him when she felt that she needed an outside source, someone who wasn't biased and wouldn't side with her every time, much as the men closer to her age would. He was kind of a male confidant, and it was great to know that she had that person on the outside who was always willing to be brutally honest with her and help her with whatever he could.

The crew was her home and there was no other way around it. They were everything she had, and it was truly amazing just to have them in her life.

"So, where are we starting to look for these damn spikes?" Michael asked Dakota.

"I was thinking the police station. They have a lockup inside of that gated area, and out here in this storm it'll be hard for them to tell what's going on, let alone have chase if we somehow miraculously get caught," she replied, the windshield wipers making loud noises each time that they hit either side of the car, trying their hardest to wipe away all of the downpour frantically.

He bobbed his head in agreement.

"We have a crowbar, right?" Ray questioned, and Michael's face grew quickly.

"Of course we have a crowbar," he guffawed, a shit-eating grin atop his lips. "What do we look like, amateurs?"

"Got me there," Ray said.

Dakota chuckled and made her way down a street, straining her eyes to see just exactly where they were at. When she recognized the area, she lit up, knowing that they were close to the station.

"Okay, we're getting there, probably a few more minutes just 'cause of how slow we're going. Do you guys want to hop the fence and get in the lockup and see what they have and I'll be in the car?"

"Yeah, sounds good," they both said in unison, taking a moment to look at each for the weird coincidence before getting serious and the car got closer and closer to their destination. 

"So," Michael trailed off, his mouth in the shape of an "o," trying to make conversation during the tiny bit of time they had left before getting to the station. "What are you gonna do about Geoff when we get back, Dak?"

"Probably just gonna act like I did earlier, like nothing happened. You know I'll be a smartass."

"Yeah, we know, just be careful, because I don't know how many times Ryan can pull you back before you fuck him up and then proceed to fuck up Geoff."

Dakota's heart fluttered at the mention of Ryan, his name sticking into her brain, but as she pulled next to what she could barely make out in the heavy onslaught of rain and the darkness from the clouds as the station, she dropped it.

"Just hurry up and get the spikes so we can get out of this storm."

And just like that, the men dove out of the car and into the mess of rain and lightning and thunder, and Dakota watched them for as long as she could before they disappeared just as they both climbed the brick wall (a generator being conveniently place there) and entered the inside of the parking lot. She sat by herself, waiting for both of them to come back with or without spikes, humming to the radio and making it a game to try and spot cars, yet that was a bust.

It was a good ten minutes before she saw any sign of movement outside of the car, and when she sat upright from the back of the seat to look, sure enough, there was Michael and Ray dropping down from the wall and bending over to pick something up together, hauling it back to the back of the car. The back was suddenly opened, rain flooding into the car as the two threw a rather large, rolled up object into the back, then shut it again and landed back into their seats, soaking wet from head to toe.

"Got it," Ray finally panted after a long pause, his glasses splotched with water droplets and his hair thrown around wildly. "You were right, there were spikes in there."

"Didn't leave any prints?"

"Even if we did, think of how dirty that thing was and then think of how hard this rain is, not to mention how long it's gonna last. They're gonna have a hard time doing anything with that."

"Then let's go back, boys," she chirped, putting the SUV into drive and making a very slow escape to HQ.

The car ride seemed like it was taking forever, but when Dakota suggested that they play I Spy just to pass the time, everyone hastily agreed until on the very first clue that Dakota gave which was, "I Spy something wet," Michael flipped out on her and yelled about how "everything in this goddamn city is practically underwater, Dakota, Jesus Christ," the game was over in no time. But it earned a good laugh for the two in the front of the car, so it wasn't a total loss. 

About fifteen minutes away from HQ, Michael got a call from Lindsay, asking him if he wanted to go do a triple date when the rain died down in the night time since it was actually still daytime covered in dark clouds, and he accepted.

"Who all's going again?" he asked, putting the phone onto speaker to see if he could hear her better due to the fact that she was trying to break up.

"Meg had the idea and already asked Gavin, so them, and Caiti asked Jack. We couldn't get ahold of Tina, but you can ask Ray," Lindsay replied, her voice breaking off in some parts of the sentence, but it was still understandable.

"Fuck yeah I wanna go, I feel like I haven't seen my woman in forever!" Ray instantly replied. "I'll call her and tell her she has no choice."

Lindsay sniggered. "Well, then I guess it's a quadruple date. You wanna ask Geoff, Michael?"

"Nah, not a good idea, plus he's kind of being an asshole. He'll probably be heading out tonight anyways, I think he said something earlier about how Griffon wanted him to come over and eat dinner," his Northern accent muttered, then his eyes flicked up to Dakota. "You trying to go, D? You can bring _Ryan_." He mocked as he always did, to which Dakota groaned.

"Michael, I'll beat your ass, but uh, no. Thanks for the offer. I'm pretty tired and was planning to go straight to sleep when we get back."

"You mean you're gonna just be all alone, the whole building all to yourself, with Ryan right next door? You're fucking boring."

"Screw you, I'm tired!"

"Fine, fine. Lindsay, we'll all see you later."

"Okay, see you then."

The call was ended and the ride was resumed with talking and laughing until they got back to HQ. Dakota somehow found her way to the back of the building and went inside of the garage, parking in the same spot that she came out of when they first left. The other SUV was already back as expected, and when they were still and the car was off, the three hopped out hastily.

Ray came around the front of the car to meet Dakota and Michael, who were walking to a stairwell that snaked upwards to each floor, being the only other way to get in or out of the garage along with the big door and the door connecting to the lobby, which now they wondered why they just didn't take that door earlier this morning, but whatever. 

"I'm guessing we're leaving the road spikes in the car for now," Ray stated to earn a response as the garage door slowly closely to itself, the behemoth of an opening coming down.

"Yeah, it's probably best until the rain clears up, unless you guys wanna haul it up these stairs," Dak replied teasingly, getting a curse from both men who didn't even want to dare dragging that thing up. 

They found themselves on the second floor, directly across from the elevator down the hallway. The second floor looked just like everyone else's, with the one way windows making up for walls and then two doors directly next to each other adjacent from the windows, except the walls were white, the floor still the same kind of wood like everyone else's. Apparently Michael and Gavin picked their color to be white when they moved in for some odd reason, but it was their floor, they got to do to it what they wanted to. 

The green was "too much for them," since they kept the green couches. In fact, Jack was the only one who had a different colored couch than everyone else because Caiti liked it and bought it for him since she too thought that green was too much. Geoff apparently got mad and told them, "Why is green our crew color then if you guys don't even appreciate it?!"

The three made a path for themselves across the floor, Michael stopping at his door and waving a goodbye, telling Ray he'd tell him more about the quad date that was planned, then stepping inside to go shower and get warm because he was freezing his ass off. The storm still hit the windows hard, but Ray and Dakota ignored it, getting into the elevator to go to their separate floors. 

Ray noticed how spaced out she looked, standing there in the elevator and looking as if she was contemplating going to her floor or not. He knew something wasn't right. When he got to the fourth floor and the doors opened, he pulled her onto it with him, getting a yelp from Dak as they both stumbled into the hallway.

"What the hell, Ray?" she asked, turning to look at him, but he wasn't having it, and she dropped her act real quick. "What?"

"What happened between you and Ryan?" he burst out, and her eyes widened upon hearing him.

She stuttered. "W-what are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb, Dakota. You were spaced out in the elevator like you didn't want to go to your floor, Ryan came out looking like shit earlier, you're tired and look like you haven't slept yourself, and the only interaction either of you had today was when he pulled you away from Geoff. That's not a coincidence and I know you well enough to know that's not like you or him. So what happened?"

Dakota hesitated, not sure whether to answer him truthfully or not, but this was Ray she was talking to. Her best friend. He could handle anything and he could keep a secret that lasted as long as a Twinkie would during the end of the world.

She sighed, running a hand through her hair to get it out of her face as it fell down partway. 

"We kissed last night, Ray, and it felt good. I feel like my feelings keep growing, the ones I try to avoid, and I don't know, I got spooked and left. I don't know what's going on or how to feel, and I feel like a terrible person that I did that to him. I didn't get one wink of sleep and apparently neither did he."

It was Ray's turn to be wide eyed, his glasses magnifying his orbs even more than they were supposed to be. He didn't know how to respond, how to react, but he knew that she was in need of his assistance and he had to say something.

Before he opened his mouth, his phone made a noise indicating a text message, and he freed it from his pocket. It was Michael, telling him the storm was calming down and they got ahold of Tina finally and to be ready in thirty. _Dammit,_ he cursed to himself.

"Okay, that's a lot to take in considering the last time I tried to make you admit your feelings you told me to fuck off, but I have to be ready soon to go. Look, when we get back, I'll text you and I want you to meet me in my apartment and we'll talk, okay? A good talk because we haven't gotten to in a long time. Does that sound good?" the man asked.

"Yeah, I'll see you then. Go, have fun with your woman," Dak smiled softly, and he started to back away, never taking his eyes off of her.

"When I get back, alright? No stand ups!" He yelled going down the hallway, and she waved a hand at him. When Ray ran inside of his door, Dak made her way back to the elevator, pressing the number for the floor above her friend that just took off. It didn't take but a few seconds for the ride to stop and open back up. 

As soon as she stepped off and into her own hallway, Ryan was exiting his place and locking it. She froze for a moment, not entirely sure what her next move was supposed to be, but when he didn't even look up at her and smile like usual, she decided to just walk straight past him, almost a little disappointed. 

_Say something, you idiot,_ her mind demanded.

Ryan was up and walking towards the elevator, about to pass her, not sure what he should do either, and it took a while, but when he was behind her and she was almost at the door and he almost at the elevator, he had to be the one to usher up his courage and turn back around to talk to her before she was invisible for the rest of the night.

"Dakota," his voice came out soft, and if the storm hadn't calmed, then she wouldn't have been able to hear. Yet she heard him just clearly, and her stomach dropped at the same time as her heart did. She missed hearing him talk to her already.

She stopped and faced him. "Hey," she tried her best to sound as soft as he had.

He couldn't help but smile at it. "Hey," he replied with a small chuckle.

There was silence except for the rain that was at a normal speed, not psychotically ravaging the town as it was before. Either person waited for the other to make a move, to say something to break the ice, but it seemed that time went on forever. Both were thinking of things to say, but nothing was good enough. Ryan had to be the one to again speak first.

"Look, I've been thinking," he started off, taking a bit to continue. "Maybe we can talk? I'm just... kind of confused here after... last night."

She wanted to look anywhere but his beautiful blue eyes, anything to avoid his gaze that was still obviously hurt, and it killed her because she couldn't force herself to do it.

"You're not the only one," she trailed off, sheepishly grabbing her limp arm. 

He took a step forward, but halted from going the whole length of the hallway to meet her. "Then what happened? Was it something I did?"

Ryan had been wondering it all day, all night, and he knew he didn't do anything wrong, but he couldn't help but think that he did. Why else would she have randomly just left?

She shook her head, immediately feeling her stomach make itself into a pit the moment that she realized it was something he thought he did wrong.

"No, Ryan, stop. It wasn't something that you did, I promise you," Dakota stated. "I just... I didn't know what I was doing. I don't know why I did that and I don't know why I left suddenly."

"Did it feel wrong?"

"That's the thing," she exhaled, starting to twiddle her fingers together and intertwine them nervously. "It felt damn right, and I just psyched myself out, and I don't know why."

Ryan blinked once, a blank expression on his face, because he had no clue what to think of what he was hearing. She _liked_ it?

"I know it doesn't make sense, Ry, and I wish I had a better answer but I don't even have one for myself. I don't know what's going on."

"Wait, wait, wait, so you felt how I felt then?" he questioned quizzically. 

"I don't know what I felt, Ryan. I don't know what I feel, and it scares me."

"Why? Don't you trust me?"

Dakota had no right to, she knew it, but she was starting to get a little bit annoyed, because the answers she was giving were straight forward like an arrow, and she didn't like opening up this much to the person that the feelings revolved around when she herself didn't know what was going on and how to handle it.

"Of course I do!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "But I don't trust what's going on within myself because I don't know what I'm feeling and what it means and what to do about it!"

She was getting tired of trying to answer these questions for herself. She wanted an easy and quick answer where she actually knew what was going on and how exactly to deal with it. She really wished that Tobias was there with her, because he was good at explaining everything that she didn't know making her feel millions of times better.

Everything was building up inside and it killed her to not have a handbook for herself because all of this was so foreign yet it was right there in front of her, screaming and yelling and telling her that she knew what was going on and was just choosing to act dumb. 

Of course, she had feelings for Ryan, that had been established. But it was too soon to be anything more and she just couldn't admit to herself that the shivers and the butterflies and the trembles and the aches that accompanied being around him or listening to him or hearing him talk was anything more, because _there was no way that it was_.

Ryan finally took a path towards Dakota, not caring what happened as soon as he got there. He just wanted to be close to her.

"Then I still don't understand, Dak," his voice was still soft, careful not to keep aggravating her because that's the last thing he wanted to do to her. 

She groaned in irritation and almost palmed her face to match it, her eyes searching him desperately to try and beg him to stop. "Ryan, I don't either and I've been trying to tell you that this whole time! I don't know what's wrong with me and you don't deserve this feeling, you don't deserve to be led on by someone who can't make up their damn mind! I guess I'm saying I don't deserve you."

She stood her ground, boring a stare into him and the same thing that overcame her last night was starting to take over. She couldn't help herself as their eyes caught, never once breaking the gaze, and the same urge to just lean up and press her lips to his and never stop for air started to flow through her. She wanted nothing more than to be held again, this time in both arms, and it took her over so randomly that it made her dizzy, dizzy with the same thoughts of him and her.

She wanted him again and it didn't make sense.

"I don't deserve you," she repeated, this time in a whisper that was barely audible, looking upward into his eyes.

That was all it took for Ryan, hearing her whisper to him those four words, and he was the one to lean down and smash his lips onto hers before she could even continue anything else that she wanted to say, but he didn't want to hear it. All he wanted was their lips connected, the two of them together and nothing else in the world that could ruin them being together.

It was Dakota this time that was a little disoriented upon his actions, but when she realized just exactly what was happening, she didn't hesitate to kiss him back, grabbing the sides of his shirt and gripping tight before pulling him closer to her where their bodies were touching. Ryan took it upon himself to take control and took it into his own responsibility. A fire that he thought she put out last night was reignited, a flame rekindled that still burned in his body and even in hers.

Ryan slid his tongue over her bottom lip, asking for entrance, and Dakota didn't hesitate to let it crash inside, the desire that she felt for the fullness of his kiss coming back as their tongues danced together.

His hands slipped to her waist, thumbing over the bone of her hip through the hem of her shirt, letting his fingers wrap around to latch onto her body. She pushed herself into him further, and wanting maximum closeness, Ryan began to lead her over the wall, pushing her into the green paint and throwing their bodies together.

She kept grasping at his shirt, tugging it and digging her nails into the soft fabric as if she was going to float away from the dizziness and all of the feelings that were clogging themselves into the pit of her stomach where she thought she wasn't going to be able to breathe, but it didn't matter. She was getting a second chance at what she wanted, and there was no way she was fucking it up this time.

Dakota finally actually grabbed the bottom of his shirt, pulling it upwards, and before she could get it halfway up his torso, Ryan stopped, hand still on her waist and lifted his face away from her. His breath was heavy and his eyes were genuine, full of some kind of concoction between admiration and complete desire.

"Wait, are you sure? I'm not going to pressure you into anything you don't know that you want for sure," his voice, still panting a little, was full of such pureness, such caring pureness that it just made Dakota want him even more, and this time she was sure of what she wanted. 

Him.

"This is me, this right here is what I want," she breathed, hands still working on his shirt, and when Ryan knew that she was being sincere, he dipped back down and connected their lips very willingly.

When Dakota got his shirt to his shoulders, she needed assistance because he was taller, and Ryan paused quickly to get the material off, taking it in his hand and throwing it down the hallway a ways, not caring where it landed or what would happen if anyone saw it because she was the only thing that mattered and the moment was too good to try to take cautiously. They were both running in the wind at that point, but the freeness and selflessness just made it that much better.

Her hands guided themselves onto his body, feeling the hardness of his stomach, his torso, his pecs, everything before finally landing on his defined, broad shoulders that she always thought completed his figure that much more. Dakota was always a little too immersed into the structure of his body, especially when it swayed while walking, but _this_ was so much better.

Ryan didn't want to go any further while they were in the hallway, knowing that a wall wasn't the most suitable place when a bed was waiting for them upstairs in his room, and he moved them towards his door, swiftly taking the key from his pocket and unlocking it without ever breaking them apart. He pushed both of them inside, shutting the door with his hand when they got far enough, and then they were up another wall, not quite making it to the stairs yet.

He was again in front of her, his body hot and his mind filled with so many deafening thoughts that he had to shake off to focus on her, on the woman that he needed. With her back against the wall and his body framed so perfectly into hers, he left her lips and dragged his own down her jawline to her neck, latching back on. He kissed and nipped and circled his tongue onto the soft spot of the nape of her neck, and even Dakota hated the warmth that left her mouth when he departed from it, somehow Ryan immediately found one of her weakest points and was working on it, and she couldn't conceal the moan that left her body and resonated into the air around them. 

The noise drove Ryan crazy, made his desire flourish and grow even more just because of the breathlessness in the sound. It was surreal, an indication that this was indeed happening and they were both real, both right there, closer than before and lost in each other. 

One of his hands left her side, trailing underneath her shirt and brushing her bare skin with his hand. The coldness caused her breath to hitch as it started to move upwards, stopping just below her bra and flattening out of the rib underneath the supportive material. She was begging him in her mind to keep going, to let the coldness fall onto her chest and for his hand to make her go farther into him for warmth.

Finally in no time as he still nibbled at her neck, Ryan's hand was underneath her bra, fondling her breast, thumb sliding over her nipple and making a shiver fall down her spine. As soon as she gave a tiny buck into him because of the cold, Ryan became a different person almost, being a little rougher and more hasty than he had been up until that point. For some reason, he could sense that she didn't mind, even encouraged him to be more forceful, and he had no problem fulfilling it although he had no idea why he assumed so. 

His index finger and thumb rolled her nipple, a gasp forming in her mouth and letting go along with another buck, more wild this time, and Ryan took the opportunity to seize her hip and keep her from going back to the wall, their lower halves connected, and Dakota understood what he was trying to do and lifted herself up from the floor. He caught her and her legs wrapped around him, Ryan grinding them both back into the wall as he thumbed her breast and kept working on her neck.

Dak couldn't stand that his lips weren't on hers anymore, and no matter the complete ecstasy that was pounding in her head and her veins, she needed him to kiss her. The woman grabbed the sides of his face, forcing him to come back up, and she crashed her mouth onto his. Ryan smirked, pulling back a ways to look at her, and _Jesus, did he look good, eyes dark and pupils blasted and hair falling around every which way._

"What, can't handle staying away from me for that long?" Ryan asked confidently, and Dakota again had another shiver send itself down her body.

"Shut up and kiss me, Haywood," she replied demandingly and he obeyed, locking lips again. 

Ryan's hand left her chest, coming out of her shirt and going back to her waist.

"Fuck this," he muttered into her, lifting her from the wall and letting both hands fall down to her ass to keep her afloat as he carried her from where they were to the stairs. It was hard for him to concentrate going up one foot at a time, being swift about it, because she was tangling her fingers in his hair and pulling it and then pressing her lips to the side of his face, to his neck, to his shoulder and biting down onto it and _God, did it feel good._

It was a long walk up the stairs and even though he thought a few times he was gonna have to stop and set her on the railing because of how crazy she was driving him, it paid off when he made it upstairs and into the bedroom. 

He almost threw her onto the mattress covered in thick covers and linen sheets, following her closely and hovering on top before taking one of her elevated knees in both hands, splitting them apart so he could go right through them and straight back to her intoxicating lips.

Dakota reached for the bottom of her shirt, never leaving the kiss, and Ryan's hands found hers and helped her take off the clothing piece, their faces departing as they worked as one to take the shirt off, then immediately going back to each other. She grabbed his face, pulling him even further onto her to the point where he had to keep a hand next to her body on the bed to steady himself, the other finding the side of her torso and making a trail down to her hip where he left it.

Ryan could feel the denim of her jeans, and he wanted nothing more than to go forward and to get them on the floor with the rest of the storm of clothes that was about to rain down there, but he had to stop himself one more time. She wasn't drunk, and she wasn't pissed off, so there was no way that she wasn't making choices she normally wouldn't make. This was all her own decision.

Right?

The man released the lip lock, his head pulling upwards to look down at her underneath him, and he couldn't help but notice how amazing she looked, eyes full of blue and hair wildly whipped around her head that rested on the bed. He was ready to go back to what they were doing, but he needed to check one last time, for his and her sake.

"What?" Dakota asked innocently, her thumb stroking his face a little, and he couldn't help but internally smile.

"I just need to make sure. You're fine?" his voice was so smooth, so warm that Dak almost melted when his words came out, but she was already becoming putty in his hands.

She gave a nod.

"I'm sure, Ryan. I want this. I want you."

And that was it. 

The night came slowly, and the morning even slower. 

Ryan was passed out, the only thing he remembered upon falling asleep was being tangled in sheets, Dakota wrapped around him and holding on tight, already fast asleep.

But when he finally did come to, the tangling, the _very_ late night, it all faded when he realized that Dakota was no longer in the bed, and he was alone and nude to himself, without a single trace.


	15. Chapter 15

_What the hell am I doing?!_

The car was cold from the air conditioner, the leather seats inside the Coquette taking in the cold rather than deflecting it. The fact that Los Santos was still underneath the spell of rain and clouds and gloom didn't help either, but the end of the day promised clearer skies and warmer weather, being the last day of darkness.

Dakota didn't make it much better either because for some reason, she was wearing athletic shorts and a tank top to match instead of dressing a little more for the part, but she had places to be or else she was finally going to go crazy.

Not only had it been days after her night that she spent at Ryan's- which was tearing away at her every move and breath and thought,- but also the preparations to go into the heist were speeding up, along with more altercations with Geoff and butting heads with him, and the last thing: Lahey.

There was so much going on inside of her mind that she felt like she was going absolutely nuts, like the gears were breaking down and her brain was about to combust into flames along with her heart and maybe her stomach? And if it wasn't one thing that was grinding at her insides, eating away at everything that she was, then it was another, and that was the thing that was the worst.

Lahey was one story on its own. It wasn't just because he was slowly and surely learning more about the crew and uncovering things that had long been forsaken- and they only knew this because Lester was right there at his every move, giving him away and trying his hardest to steer the man from the crew, but to no avail- but it was that Lahey knew one person's name in particular: Dakota's.

It didn't make sense at first how he dug up so much about her, knowing her name and past and everything that no other cop, no other agent knew. But Lester bid that when he saw her face at her little stake out on her own, then he obsessively tried his hardest to get information on her, maybe even riling up some old contacts from his bad cop/good cop days. There were files on the man's computer (that Lest completely hacked into) that brought up so many things about Dakota that it wasn't even funny.

There weren't just files on her history, but evaluations, observations of her, and things like places she would be at, people she was with, things that looked suspicious, dates, times, everything. Lahey was stalking her, making note of every little thing she did and trying to get information on everybody else at her expense, and if that wasn't hard enough to deal with, then she didn't know what was. 

Dakota felt like she was the reason that the crew was going to get caught, to get found out, and it pressured her to make sure that when her gut told her she was being followed, especially on a setup for the heist with any of the guys with her, that she evaded the invisible presence until it was gone. The stalking, the files that popped up every consecutive day, hearing from Lester that "yet again, Lahey is on your ass, be more evasive," it didn't help ease her conscience or the stress that she was already feeling.

But Lahey wasn't the only one who stressed her out. Geoff was a big contributor to the pressure that was welling up deep inside of her.

No matter what the situation may be, anytime that she was around her boss or in some kind of way related to him for God knows what, there was so much tension, and that wasn't even the worst part. It was the actual fights, the actual things that happened when they both started to yell and scream and not see eye to eye, that was the worst of it all.

It was like Geoff didn't trust her anymore for whatever reason, like she was unreliable and even if she was sticking her neck out for the crew, her _friends_ , Geoff wasn't having any of it. He dismissed her, threatened to expel her like some kind of dictating school principal, anything to make her look bad and to piss her off. 

Time wasn't exactly working out for either of them to heal their wounds, but instead it seemed to poor salt onto the open cuts and make them sting like hell.

But even with the fights, the stalking from Lahey, none of that compared to the absolute hole that sat in her heart. The one that only one person could fill, one specific person that she had been trying her hardest to avoid and to forget until there was some peace of mind, but she couldn't just let him go because he consumed her: Ryan.

God, was he on her mind so constantly that Dakota swore she didn't even know if she could describe the word "sanity" to someone if they asked her for a definition. The woman was going mad and couldn't concentrate on anything because Ryan was always there, in her mind and in her mind's eye and not to mention on the same floor level as her.

The past few days was hard considering that they saw each so consistently, and she decided to just avoid him like a plague. He tried to reach out so many times, personally, through messages, anything he could, until he got the drift that she was putting off and just stopped all together. And the awkwardness that came with their avoidance of one another was on a different scale.

The rest of the guys noticed the shallow small talk, the shambling away from the other person when one of them got too close, the way that their eyes would never meet unless it regarded a job or a meeting. That wasn't like their favorite OTP, and they wanted to fix it, so both Ryan and Dak were peppered with questions and prying just to see why the two had been so off lately. But neither admitted what they both knew for fear that it would complicate things even further.

Even Ray didn't know about their night together, which he was pissed at Dakota the next morning for standing him up, by the way. She made up her own bullshit lie to conceal the truth, the truth that she had no idea what to do with.

She didn't want to leave the next morning, still entangled in a handsome man's arms and listening to him lightly hum his breaths in and out and feel the way his chest would ripple up, then down. Dakota woke before he had, lying there in absolute darkness and wondering what the hell she was going to say, what this meant for them, what everyone else would say, if she would stay and let him make breakfast or not. And it overwhelmed her to the point where she just overreacted and did what she does best, run away from her problems rather than facing them- well, her emotional problems at least. Give her a gun and she'd be good to go, but tell her that her father has passed and then give her inexplicable feelings for a man? Off she goes.

It was so hard to her to try and understand what was going on, and all she knew was she needed someone to talk to, someone with experience. The only reason Ray didn't know is because he wasn't as... hardened, as per say, a person with ten more years on him would be. She needed someone she knew she could trust and who would give their honest, wise opinion, even if she didn't like it, and that's when she thought Jack, whom she would usually run to in this sort of situation. But bringing him in would go against her will to not get the crew involved. There was too much on all of them at the time.

So her next number dialed was Burnie. He didn't answer after nine million calls, making the woman roll her eyes and nearly throw her phone out of the car window, until the next person just randomly popped into her head when she drove past a tattoo shop and saw a woman with short, blond hair. The lady outside of the store immediately made Dakota think of Griffon, and the next thing she knew, she was driving like a bat out of hell to her boss's house in the hills of Vinewood.

Griffon wasn't exactly someone who Dak had asked for assistance in things before, unless it was a matter of fashion, then those two were on it and calling all of the other women of the Fake AH Crew to have a little break to themselves. Lindsay always told Dakota, "We've been around these boys for years and it's driven us to the point where we want to drive into the ocean several times. Trust me, you need a break from them, especially how close in proximity you are with them everyday."

Griffon and Linds were the type of people that Dakota called for a relief from the horrors of the guys, and they weren't too bad of friends together. She thoroughly enjoyed their company and their talks and loved to drink with them and almost hated when she went out with the guys and they weren't tagging along sometimes. But she had never thought to bother them with her personal problems, which there never were any to begin with, but that changed recently. 

And even though she knew that she wouldn't be bothering really, she couldn't help but be a little jittery as she exited her car and walked up a sidewalk of rocks all put together as a path, leading to a pretty big, modernly built house that overlooked one of the highest points of the Vinewood hills, supported on stilts as it ran over the edge of the hill towards the back of the estate. The place was really nice and it really fit the Ramseys, and even though it immediately felt homely, Dakota began to twirl her thumbs together and clench her teeth as she approached the entrance.

Everything that she wanted to say and to get off of her chest was storming inside of her and gripping her like a vice, so tight that she didn't even know if she could breath. Dakota rarely ever had breakdowns, but all of the things in her life that were swirling together were making a breakdown look like absolute heaven, and that was saying a lot coming from the spawn of a man who was a legend and the spawn itself that was as deadly and as skillful as he was.

It took a few minutes, but after a lot of mental cursing and pep talk, Dakota reached up to a doorbell next to the frame, and she gave it a firm tap. The anticipation that came with the wait for the door to swing open was a little too much, almost making her turn around and hop right back in her car, but when it finally did and out popped Griffon Ramsey, Dakota forced a smile and stayed.

"Well, if I knew you were coming, Dakota, I would have made some more of those little cookie bite things that you tore up the last time you came over," Griffon stated with a smirk playing on her face, and Dakota rolled her eyes playfully.

"First off, you're the one who invited me over after knowing me for what, like, three days?" Dakota bit back in a teasing tone, causing a scoff to roll off of Griffon's mouth.

"I don't see why you're so bitter, you know you had fun. If I were you, I'd consider being around me a blessing because I save you from the idiocy of those six men."

Dakota laughed genuinely. "That you are. I missed you, Grif."

"Ugh, you know better than to call me that. Sounds like some kind of video game character," It was her turn to roll her lightly colored blue eyes, but she immediately gestured for Dak to enter the house, the same smirk pooling at her lips. "I missed you too, though."

Dakota took the gesture and stepped into the house, immediately making her way towards the large coffee table that was situated in the middle of the ginormous living room, filled with modern looking sculptures, retro and vintage things also in the mix because this was the Ramseys she was talking about. There was a white couch that surrounded the glass coffee table on either side, on top of a huge black rug. Behind it all were dense stairs leading up towards the loft, but the part that always got Dak the most in the living room was the enormous window-wall, probably the biggest she had ever seen, and the ones at HQ were pretty big.

The window led out into the city below, overlooking nearly every single thing except for the south side of town that was blocked by the scale of the north side, buildings and the range of it and what not. She knew that above the window was a pretty spacey balcony with a pool and patio and even a bar that the Ramseys said they installed after buying the place, but the window seemed to suck up everything and make the rest of the house non existent, except through those panes of glass.

Going far enough into the living room revealed a kitchen to the left with an island and it was the only part of downstairs that didn't fit the whole black and white and sculpture theme, except for the bed room to the far right that matched the kitchen. Dakota personally thought that the kitchen, with the reds and the dark oak wood, was one of the prettiest parts of the house just because it looked so goddamn expensive. 

The house itself was beautiful, and although Dak was never into the whole modern look, thanks to Tobias and the beach house that she purchased and made remodeling plans herself for, she adored the taste that her boss and his wife had. That's why she liked the look of the apartment in HQ so much too, because they personally designed them.

On the coffee table was a bowl of popcorn facing towards a TV on the right side of the room, mounted on the wall and over a shelf of really cool vintage looking things. There was a movie that was paused, and Dakota felt a little bad about not calling ahead.

"As much as I love that you're over here," Griffon started, heading back over to the spot she was curled up in on the couch and getting back into that position, "can I ask what made you come here so urgently? It's not my dickwad husband is it?"

Dakota sat across from her on the other couch and gave a confused look.

"You... you know about that?"

"What, him being a fucking piece of shit towards you?" the short haired woman replied, annoyance apparent in her warm, alto voice. "Yeah, I know all about it. There's nothing that he does that I don't know about, even in his sex dreams he calls me to ask if it's okay to bone someone else."

She chuckles and Dakota follows.

"Well, that's kind of sweet," Dak offers, but gets a tut from Griffon.

"It's kind of bullshit! He blames it on me that he doesn't get laid in his dreams, that's not my fault he's too devoted to me!" the tattooed individual exclaims, but the smile on her face suggests that she thinks it's pretty sweet herself. "But uh, yeah I know how he treats you, and I hate it. He hates it himself too, I just don't know why he continues to do it."

She looked pretty disheartened by the topic, and it was obvious that her and Geoff had a lot of talks about it that didn't end too well. Dakota decided to avert the subject and take it a different route, because she wasn't quite ready to ask about the obvious things on her mind.

"I know this is kind of random, but how long have you guys been together? Like dating, marriage, all of it."

Griffon gave Dakota an eye that didn't quite understand, but she seemed to take the hint pretty quick and went along with the question.

"It's been about seven years, including when we first met. We dated four years before the crew and have been married three since the beginning of it."

"Why'd you guys wait so long?"

"He always told me he wanted nothing but the best for me since he couldn't give me a normal life," Griffon chuckled. "He's an idiot though, because we met when I lifted his wallet at a concert one night after he came up to me and offered me drinks, hence the whole 'My name is Geoff, and I'm not as big of a disappointment as I look.' I used to do small theft before I met him anyways, so it wasn't like I was exactly normal myself. I guess that's why I never cared about what he did when he told me."

Dakota was kind of astonished. "Wait, he just _told you_ how he makes a living and you were like, 'Cool, let's date?!' Every time a guy even suspected that I was the daughter of that 'man who killed all those people,' they left and disappeared off of the face of the earth!"

"Well, what could I say, there was just something about him that made me instantly fall in love even though it took me a while to admit it."

That's when Dakota froze. She couldn't even fathom words after hearing that and her brain started to hurt because she remembered why she was here: to ask for advice, which meant talking about her feelings for Ryan too.

Griffon observed how still her opposite became as soon as she said "love," and she wasn't dumb. She knew that there was something up with Dakota, and from the looks of it, part of it had to be something about the man that everyone tried to force her to be with. 

Personally, Griffon thought the two would be absolutely amazing for each other, but she didn't pressure them into anything because the crew already gave them both so much hell for their apparently repressed feelings. She got a vibe off sometimes when she was around them, but other than that she just assumed that they were really good friends and the time would come if it were to be.

But she realized now that the look in Dakota's eyes, the scared, helplessness that she had never seen come from the strong woman before, there was something in there that reflected on it and told her that it was her emotions rather than physical things.

Griffon sat forward from her curled position, but Dak didn't move to meet her.

"Dakota," she trailed off. "Tell me what you're here for. I can't help you if you don't tell me-"

"I had sex with Ryan."

It was blurted out so quickly and so boldly that Griffon had to blink a few times and shake her head just to try to process what she heard, but even then, she asked, "Come again?"

"A week ago, I had sex with Ryan, Griffon," Dakota stated almost expressionless. She didn't move, didn't move her eyes, she didn't even seem to breathe. She waited to see if Griffon would say anything, do anything, but the other woman was instead just watching her, wanting her to explain more because her wide, attentive orbs weren't going back to normal unless she knew what she was hearing was correct.

"But it's not just that," Dak continued, grabbing the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. "Before that, I kissed him. I initiated it. And I left right after, and I did the same thing the morning after. We haven't talked since then because I keep avoiding him."

Griffon was trying to understand, but it was evident she wasn't completely following. "And so this is your problem? You did something you regret?"

Dakota shook her head. "No. I don't regret it at all. In fact, it made me feel like with him, nothing can go wrong, like I'm safe and even though there's so much shit going on with the fact that I'm constantly followed and if I slip up, it can jeopardize the team, and also that your husband completely dismembers me every time I try to put in my two cents about the heist, he makes me feel like none of that is there. And it's killing me, Griffon, because I haven't even known him for four months and I feel like I'm too invested in him for my own good. I've never felt this way and it scares me because I have no idea what's going on and if anything good will come out of it. It's all so new and so surreal."

Up until that point, Griffon had been intently listening to her friend, trying to piece everything together and to make sense of what she was saying, but the answer was so obvious that she didn't know how Dakota didn't realize it herself until she remembered that human interaction was never much in her book as a child unless it was with her father, and he was the one who helped her and made her think for herself. This topic was just something they probably never got to because they were so busy themselves.

But still, she had to know, right?

It took a few minutes for Griffon to come up with a response, which was scaring the living hell out of Dak, but when her voice finally rang in her ears, it was almost a relief.

"So, I'm guessing you want my word on it then?" Griffon asked, earning a deep nod from the woman opposite her.

Dakota was so eager to finally have a second opinion on the subject that she had to stand up to keep from fidgeting in her seat, and Griffon decided to stand too while talking.

"First thing's first, the whole deal with Lahey is fucked and I'm sorry about that because my husband doesn't make it any better. It must be hard to have that much pressure on yourself because I know you're thinking if you mess up, it's all over, but come on, D. Let's be real. You're a badass!" the smile took over her lips quickly. "There's no way this FIB fuck will make you any less than the strong, independent person you are, and Geoff won't contribute to it either. You did good without them and I'm sure you got out of worse things than this."

That was true, she had, but just to hear the reassurance, Dakota felt a hundred times better already, and she silently thanked herself for thinking of going to Griffon in the first place. 

There was another pause from the speaker, but she quickly gathered the words she was going to say and spoke again.

"And as for Ryan, you're sure you feel this way about him?"

Dakota sighed. "Yeah... It's been eating at me since we became close but it was never this bad, and I have no idea what to do."

"And he makes you feel safe while all at the same time he's intoxicating enough to draw you in, even when you have no clue how to feel?"

"Yes."

"And even though you're avoiding him right now, you really wish you weren't and that you guys were the same way you were before, just maybe more?"

"I-I guess?"

"Dakota."

"Yeah?"

"You're in love. You love Ryan."

Dakota's face as soon as Griffon said it turned from intent to flabbergasted. 

"W-wait, what?!"

Griffon laughed to herself for a moment, looking behind her to the couch and sitting down on the arm while her friend still stood, hair and eyes everywhere and face turning flush from all of the red that was welling up in her cheeks.

"You heard me, D. That feeling that you've never felt before, it's love. And I'm not saying it because I 'ship' you guys or whatever the hell all these people call it, it's because I know the feeling and I've been underneath it for years."

Dakota felt like her wall, the one that she had been below for so long, the one that restricted her from her feelings and from what she knew about them, was coming down around her and something new had opened up to her.

Of course, she had thought about the option once or twice, but it was too soon, wasn't it?! There was no way the word "love" could even exist for her situation with Ryan, because she only knew him for, at the most, two months! There was no love at first sight bullshit, nothing like that-

Or wait, was it? When she first saw him, that intriguing feeling she had at the Davis building, the way he haunted her afterwards, everything from that night and every night after until they met again; was it really love at first sight? Surely she would have known, right? Known and not have been so confused about it all?

Then again she was contradicting herself. She never even knew how it felt, this would be her first time ever "loving" someone that wasn't considered family, whether that was blood or not. She loved her father and her deceased mother, of course, and she loved Burnie. She loved the guys and she once loved a dog that she had as a pet as a kid that lasted until she was eleven. But this, this was different, she guessed.

All of those one night stands and all of those guys who said they cared about her and didn't mean it, it was all bullshit compared to this. This was real and it was happening and she was involved big time. 

But was it seriously _love_? 

"I... I don't even know what to say," Dakota inhaled her breath and let it out slowly, grabbing her elbow sheepishly.

"Well, I know for you it's kind of hard to take in, so just think about it. I'm just telling you my word, but it's your decision to decide what your next step is, and if you think I'm wrong, then so be it."

"No, no, it's not that," Dak sighed yet again, and she looked at Griffon so desperately, it almost made the tattooed woman feel bad for throwing this on her on top of everything else her friend was dealing with at the time. "It's just that before you said it, I thought about it a few times, but now I'm really starting to consider the fact that you're right."

"Really?"

"Yeah... God, what do I do?"

"Well," Griffon bolted off of the arm of the couch and took Dakota's shoulders in her hands, forcing her to look in her own eyes where blue met blue. "This isn't a bad thing, so don't take it that way. I know it's kind of weird at first, but trust me, love with the right person is amazing and everyone deserves to experience it. Just... just take time to think on it and don't beat yourself up over it."

"What do I do about talking to him?" her voice was low and soft, and Griffon forced a closed mouthed smile for reassurance.

"Don't wait. I know that the heist is coming up soon, and it's probably one of the biggest cuts to date, and you need to focus. So just get this whole thing with him out of the way before something happens and it's too late, okay?"

Dakota nodded slightly, really taking in what Griffon had to say. It made sense, and the more and more she thought about it, the more she really considered that maybe it was true and that she really did need to take matters into her own hands. 

"I'm really glad I came to you, Griffon," Dak admitted.

"Well, I'm glad you did too. Honestly, I'd come to me too if I was falling in love with Vagabond," Griffon chuckled, her hair falling front of her eye, and she flipped it to make it fall back into place, but Dakota wasn't laughing. 

_The Vagabond?!_

"Wait, what did you just say?" she questioned almost with a demanding demeanor, but she didn't mean to.

Griffon paused.

"You didn't know? Oh shit."

"Ryan is the Vagabond? Ryan _Haywood_ , our Ryan?"

"Yeah... shit, I thought you knew, I didn't mean to make you think any differently about-"

Dakota waved her hand and dismissed her. "No! It doesn't, it's just... You're sure we're talking about the same Ryan, right?"

"I was there when Geoff indicted him into the crew, back when he had no feelings and was scary as hell. Still is at the right times. You really don't think anything different about him?"

There was a small silence in the huge house, but Dakota finally broke it with a soft smile. "What did you say earlier? Oh yeah, 'Well, what could I say, there was just something about him that made me instantly fall in love even though it took me a while to admit it.'"

"So you ARE in love with him!"

"I'm still thinking about it, shut up, Grif."

"What did I tell you about calling me that?"


	16. Chapter 16

As soon as Griffon walked Dakota out of the Ramsey home and let her be on her way, Dakota's phone started to vibrate rapidly until she answered while walking to her car.

"Dakota?!" the voice was tired and somewhat jittery, and coming from that person, she was a little worried.

"Burnie? I've been trying to call you because I really needed you and-"

"Dak!" Burnie immediately interrupted the woman, causing her to stop putting the key into the slot on her car door at the sound of his tone. "Look, _I_ need you now. We can talk about whatever it was you wanted to later, but right now, you need to meet me somewhere."

Dakota became a little stiff while listening to him on the other side of the phone.

"What's wrong?"

"Look, I'm leaving the FIB building right now, just..." Burnie paused for a moment and sighed, thinking to himself. "How fast can you get to Bean Machine in that little shopping area downtown?"

"Why- why the hell were you at the FIB building on Saturday? You're always off on Saturday unless there's a case."

"I'll explain it all to you when we meet, so how long, Dak?"

"I mean I'm up in the hills right now, but I can be there in about... twenty minutes?"

"Good, me too. I'll see you there."

And with that, Dakota unlocked her car, hopped inside, started it up, and sped all the way to the meeting place, all sorts of thoughts and worries and fears rambling through her young mind that all ended badly.

She had no idea how to feel, because it had been forever since she last even spoke to Burnie. They were both just too busy with things of their own, and she felt bad because she really missed him, but Dak knew that it wasn't anything personal on either of their parts. She didn't even talk to him when Geoff recruited him to help with the Lahey thing though, and it still made her feel bad.

But Burnie was usually the calm person, the one who knew what to do and had advice for everything if Dakota didn't have a mind of her own. So for him to be acting as jittery as he was, it kind of freaked Dak out. 

It took her a while to find the Bean Machine whenever she raced herself downtown, because that was the spot that she met Burnie at when they were both working, and it had been a while since the two met there. She almost forgot where the location was, but after a few minutes of idling in the parking lot of the shopping area and looking up and down the street to search for the sign, she found it and exited the car. 

Upon approaching the coffee shop, her blue orbs scanned every inch of it to find her friend, and when she spotted a man clad in a black collared shirt, blue jeans, and boots, also equipped with a baseball cap on top of his head out in the patio, she immediately took a sprint to him. 

When she got close, Dakota sprung just as the man turned to face her, and the two bodies collided. The man had to put his arm behind her and catch the guardrail surrounding the patio just to keep them up and in the air, one arm snaked around her waist and holding on tightly out of reflex. Dakota refused to let him go even as he seriously struggled to stay up, and she buried her head into his chest, taking in his scent of expensive, good-smelling cologne and his natural musk. Two flavors she missed all too much.

They stayed like that for a while, just intertwined and remembering the presence of one another, the presence that they both hadn't seen for far too long. It was nice just to stand there, reminiscing the feeling of each other and to have such a strong reassurance that they both needed and wanted at the time. A reassurance that was lost when they were apart, but that immediately reappeared as soon as they reunited.

"God, kid, you're squeezing my insides and I'm about to pop," the man barely coughed out with a small chuckle, and it seemed muffled to Dakota's ears as she stayed pressed to his chest, hair ruffling over her entire head and making her look like a dark-haired mass.

"I don't care, Burns," she mumbled into him. "I missed you too much."

Burnie smiled to himself, feeling his heart move a little inside of himself. He really missed the kid.

"Me too. Me too, D."

After a few more seconds, Dakota finally- and reluctantly- moved away from Burnie, letting the man readjust and stand normally rather than hold both of their weight and not letting them fall face first into the concrete. The heads turned to them moved away and went back about their business, letting the two look take a good look into the eyes of their counterpart. 

Dakota shrugged her shoulders upwards for a split second, her eyebrows following, and she let out a breath.

"So... what's the thing that's so important that you couldn't answer my calls earlier?" her tone was playful, but as soon as she brought it up, Burnie turned hardened, and his face contorted into a sort of worrisome state. 

"It's about Lahey."

Dakota's face fell along with every word he punctuated. The light that shone in her eyes turned cold, and her mouth was formed into a straight line.

"What exactly happened?"

Burnie sighed and pulled out a chair next to them for the woman in front of him.

"It's a long story. Sit and we can talk about it and I can explain everything."

-

"Fuck!" Dawson Lahey screamed, gripping the files and papers on his desk and flinging them off to the side. They hit staplers, pens, pencils, cup holders, anything, and pushed those off of the table too, leaving a mess on the ground as it all hit. Some papers straggled in the air, floating down like little flurries from a blizzard until they too perished on the floor. Just one heaping pile of mess.

The man grabbed a coffee mug sitting on the desk that didn't fall off with the computer, the only two things, and he chunked it at the wall leading to the hallway to get to the elevators and the stairs. The ceramic dish shattered upon impact, trickling down the wall and resting down below, a hill of ash and mug parts everywhere. 

But this was not the first mug that Lahey smashed in his fits of rage while all alone at the office. It was one of many, many tantrums, all from his days of his bad cop ways, which was the reason why he was even still in the office in the first place, and why he was so utterly angry. All because he decided, and a few others, years ago that it would be a good idea to just take their chances and stay on the fence rather than do their job the normal way.

If he hadn't listened to Ruiz and Peters, he wouldn't be in this. If he wouldn't have let his damn "friends" pressure him into becoming a dirty cop, then he wouldn't have just lost the only lead he had on the Fake AH Crew, on Dakota Dayley, on the only case he had that was going to bring him back into the ring of trust with his boss and get him his normal routine back.

But "if's" never got anyone anywhere, and he had to deal with the fact that he was going to have to start all over on tracing the crew that was so imperfectly evasive to him. 

Lahey tried everything. He tried to follow them, to stake out their place, to run anything on Dakota that he had and that he knew about her, but nothing worked. They either somehow lost him or seemed all too normal. He never knew what they were going to do next because they were unpredictable, and when he got the girl's name to work with rather than the empty names of everyone else in that goddamn crew, he thought it would make his case a little bit easier. But it didn't. Not one bit.

She was tricky. No background, nothing that seemed abnormal or out of place. The addresses she had were all empty, Lahey should know because he didn't even wait for a warrant to search each premises, he instead broke in to every single one, but still, nothing out of the ordinary. Not even any illegal weapons or anything. Nothing at fucking all to go on or to start with. 

He had no proof of any activity that the crew did, besides the day that he ran into Ms. Dayley at the Liberty Two Bank in Tongva, but even that wasn't enough to prove anything because it was barely "suspicious activity."

Everything about these guys was squeaky clean, and it almost made him close the case all together and give up and accept the fact that he ruined his life and his job. 

Until he found a security video one day while going through the database (because why not? It was all he had.) where one of the rumored dirty cops that never got caught, unlike Lahey, was in association with Dakota, or so he assumed. 

It wasn't much of a lead, but Burnie Burns brought in a woman that looked just like the perp months ago. The two got lunch together and although the video was grainy and black and white, Lahey definitely thought there was some recognition, and when he brought up the picture in Dakota's file, it was the same woman. Nothing criminal about having lunch, sure, but when it was a supposed dirty cop having lunch with his top suspect, then the light bulb sparked inside of his head.

And when Special Agent Lahey brought up his findings to Director Hetfield, the two set up an interview with Burnie because it was all they had. 

But somehow, someway, Burnie got away on some bullshit lie, and since he was one of the many special agents that was always praised for his work and one of the Bureau's favorites, he walked away without a second thought from the Director after the interview. It went so well in fact, Director Hetfield chewed out Lahey for even putting the thought into his mind that "Burns was in any way part of association with suspects."

He threatened to close Lahey's case and to terminate him once and for all, but after minutes of reassuring, "I'll get these sons of bitches, sir," Hetfield left and Lahey stayed, working a late night yet again.

And there he was, throwing a famous rampage, something he did too often when he got mad. Maybe it was the old withdrawals from the pills he liked to use too much, which he tried to stop, but that led to even more rampages. 

Pills sounded good to him at that time, but he knew he couldn't abandon his case and make matters even worse for himself by 'roiding out on some prescription pill that he refilled more than the pharmacist's liking. 

He had to find this crew, or he was going to lose everything, including his sanity. 

Lahey stumbled to his desk, putting his elbows on the newly naked top, placing his face inside of his palms, then sighed. 

"There has to be something to lead me to them," he whispered quietly to himself, his brain on the verge of frying itself, and he tried to remind himself of everything he saw while "tailing" them. 

But then it hit him.

The Liberty Two Bank. The one that Dakota seemed to be staking out.

Lahey popped his head out of his hands, throwing himself to the ground to find the documentation of the heists the crew pulled off. His hands rummaged through the mess on the floor until it grasped a manila folder, and he practically pried it open, sticking his finger to all of the dates that the crew was suspected to have hit joints around the state or city. 

Dawson's finger landed on a date, the latest heist, and it seemed it happened so long ago, months ago in fact. That meant that another heist was long overdue, meaning why Dakota had been staking out the place, and that concluded his theory: they were about to hit that bank, sending Dakota to case it, and that's why they were so quiet and seemingly perfect lately, because they were _planning_.

But there was no way that he was going to figure all of this out on his own. He'd need to assign himself to the patrol that takes themselves out to that area when the call is made that a robbery was issued, he'd have to make a plan to get all of them in his grasp, anything like that. There was no way he could do it all alone and the normal way.

Lahey would have to go dirty, and that meant he needed to make a few quick calls.

-

It was hot.

Like, burn your head off hot, but that was only according to Gavin, so it probably was a little overrated than normal. 

So hot, that instead of going to make a trip to Tongva for the impending heist that was on it's way the next day for another careful round, the Fake AH Crew was sitting in the lobby of headquarters, not even daring to go all the way up top to the level set out for planning, sitting in casual clothing and looking normal, but not very normal at all.

The goofiness, the crazy, the childishness, it was all gone. The unprofessional state that all of them possessed and that defined all of their characters was gone, resting somewhere deep in their minds in a box with a lock, never to come back until their thoughts were off of the heist and they knew that they were all good for the time being.

The others were all caught up in Geoff, listening to him go over the plan and point at a makeshift bulletin board that he set up with cardboard and markers and stick figure drawings, since everything else was upstairs, and he was "too fucking hot to sweat my ass off being going upstairs and getting all of the shit when I can just make it from memory." 

So instead, the plan was being recited on a packing box and everything that the guys made fun of for looking like a fourth grader drew was being marked off and written on top of. It was a total mess, but everyone knew that there was a limitation to being silly, so by the third terrible drawing, the bickering and laughter stopped, resuming the deep stares and the contemplative minds that were brilliant when all put together and polished like a well oiled machine. Their professionalism always prevailed at the end of the day, no matter how much of screw ups they could be when not working.

Even Burnie and Lester were in the mix, behind everyone else who was either leaning or sitting on the pool table where Geoff took the head, listening so they would know for sure what was going to go down with this heist.

It had been a few days since the thing with Burnie getting interrogated, but after Director Hetfield apologized to him and Lester made sure to delete anything else that could link him to the crew that hadn't already been touched, they all got on with the preparing stage and left it behind them.

Lahey didn't mess with them afterwards either, making every member feel more at ease, especially Geoff. He was glad that he decided to keep going and not give up on the score, and although Dakota still had a sinking feeling that all was not well, she too was a little more relieved with everything that was going on. She talked to Griffon, she talked to Burnie, and Lahey wasn't trying to screw her over anymore.

And that was all well and good, for her at least, because while she had some closure, she still didn't talk to Ryan before the heist.

And that left Ryan standing there in the pool table room, his arms crossed over his broad chest while listening to Geoff talk, face stern and mind seemingly clear, but it wasn't the case at all.

He was still confused. Dakota rejected all of his advances to talk, blowing him off and saying that "they would get to it after the job was over," but that was back when they had to pull one final setup together, and the talk never went down. 

There were so many things he wanted answered from her, and so many things he wanted answers for himself. He was long past the puppy phase where he just wanted to give her space when she obviously didn't want him anymore. He was a German Sheppard, looking for his lost ball, the thing that completed him and made him happy when he was with it, the thing that gave him purpose to run free and to be himself. And he was going to find that ball, because just like a dog, he truly lo-

"Ryan, you know what you're doing, right?" a voice came over him, and it sounded like it was drowning, but he blinked and looked at Geoff, who he realized just spoke to him. 

He cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'm on the inside whenever we bust in, then I stay behind and lay down suppressive fire with Michael and Dak as Ray snipes from a vantage point in the hills surrounding the bank. We steal off when it's clearing up, take the sewer, meet you guys a county over, and we get off scott free."

Geoff raised an eyebrow at his friend who looked a little spaced out, not ever really staring back at him, but he shook it off because either way he knew his part.

The plan was simple: the crew would take separate cars with different people inside of them for different jobs. Ryan, Michael, Ray, and Dakota all take a car to the bank, while he, Jack, and Gavin take the other and wait in a different county for getaway. First team has the responsibility of getting in, masks or whatever headgear equipped, getting the score, laying down fire to relieve themselves, then getting to the sewer at the first chance they can hop on. Second time's responsibility is making sure the tunnels underground are secure as the others meet up with them, then making the getaway as clean as possible. 

It was nothing hard, nothing they hadn't done before besides the fact that the underground part was brand new.

Burnie was there for support if and when the FIB gets called in to tell them what direction they're heading and what not, and Lester agreed to help out in case the safe can't be cracked and he has to hack into it. 

Everything was set and it was all too easy, like taking candy from a baby.

Geoff clasped his hands together, a habit he did when lecturing in front of the class.

"Well, guys, I guess if everyone knows their part and can recite this off the tip of their tongue, then that means we've overworked this thing. Let's call it a day huh? Meet up tomorrow bright and early, seven sharp or I'll be pissed as dicks. So, uh, class dismissed."

When everyone stayed gathered around, he huffed. "I mean it. Get the fuck outta my sight, I gotta deal with you all day tomorrow and I need to do my daily drinking alone."

Michael scoffed. "Wow, what a fucking surprise."

"Jones, I'm guessing that's a challenge."

"If it's your liquor, then fuck yeah it's a challenge!"

"You crossed the line!"

"Oh, blow me, Geoff! You drink all of my liquor!"

"I also pay you the money to buy that, I can take your cut down."

"Did I stutter? Blow me."

As the two bickered together, everyone else left them to it, leaving the area to disperse into wherever they were going. Ryan took a route by his self, observing everyone else as they walked out together and laughed and talked and started to head to all of their designated places they wanted to go. His eyes caught Dakota, walking Burnie out of the front door and hugging him before he left, Lester following the FIB agent. When she turned around, he looked away, heading over to the elevator himself to get to his apartment. Everyone besides Geoff and Michael, who were now drinking, went upwards, so the elevator and the lobby was empty.

As soon as he pressed the button and started to board the elevator, a voice called out.

"Hey, Ry, can you hold that open for me?"

There were footsteps jogging towards him as he put an arm on the door and held it, not even inside the transportation device himself, and a black mass walked inside. He let go and finally made it all the way in, turning to press the button for his floor, but it was already pressed.

"Thanks," Dakota said with a small smile, and he barely returned it.

"Yeah, what are floor roomies for?"

The woman chuckled as they rode up, silence from there on out. There was so much they both wanted to say, but neither of them did. Newfound discoveries and revelations and feelings that might have made the ride less awkward, but as always, they were too afraid to bring anything up to one another. 

It wasn't until Ryan and Dak exited the elevator and started to go towards their apartments that Ryan lightly gripped Dakota's wrist, making her stop dead in her tracks. She turned around to face him, and the two were closer than she anticipated upon twirling to look him in the eye. 

Her breath hitched when she witnessed the light from the windows glint in his face, making the blue of his eyes sparkle and shine with the most natural light that could ever fathom itself upon him. His hair was highlighted and his face was paler with the glint, but his eyes almost popped out of his skull, and he looked too good to look away. 

Her conversation with Griffon came back to her, and she remembered the word love. 

"So, are we ever going to be able to talk?" Ryan asked sheepishly, and everything that Dakota was feeling and that she talked about with her boss's wife started to overwhelm her yet again. She wanted to talk, to talk about _love_ and his identity as the _Vagabond_ for Christ's sake, but she had no idea how to express it.

That's really why Dak never came up to him in the first place in the past few days. She wanted to talk, to tell him everything, to let him know that she felt this way and possibly always had and that she was sorry for the way she was treating him, but it seemed too hard to let out, especially with the heist in the way. Dakota wanted to wait until after, but everytime that he asked her to talk to him, it just made matters that much worse inside of her.

She knew she shouldn't have waited, but she did, and she didn't have the time or the courage to tell him now.

Dak sighed and pushed away from Ryan.

"There's no time, Ryan. We need to wait until after-"

"What, after the heist?" he intoned. "Just like you said after that last minute setup we had to pull? It's bad enough you avoid me, but blowing me off, that just makes it worse."

"And I know that! I do! But I just don't know what to say or how to say it!"

"Then why don't you start with the night we spent together? Or how about the beginning, when you kissed me?" Ryan deadpanned while his eyes bored into her, and she looked away quickly, afraid he might see what she wanted to say.

"I can't!" Dakota yelled, turning to go to her apartment, and Ryan followed right on her tail. "You just don't understand, we need to wait."

Ryan rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah, we'll never get it done then. I might as well cancel this little appointment now because there's no way you're ever going to talk to me the way that you've been going about it."

Dakota was getting a little agitated, and it wasn't at him, but herself. Agitated that she couldn't even put into words what she was feeling and give him that courtesy rather than keep leading him on and making him guess every little second. But she couldn't conceal her anger, and it came out in her words.

"Ryan!" she asserted, twisting around to yet again face him, and his eyes widened when he saw her emotion. "Enough is enough. We're going to talk about it after the heist. That's it. Now get your head in the game for the score rather than me."

And with that, the woman was forcing herself to walk into her apartment, slamming the door to play along when she really just wanted to go back out and let him know that she was just being complicated and that she was sorry and to crash her lips onto his.

In the hallway, the hot from the sun hitting the windows sizzling into the level, Ryan was still there, a little in disbelief that he just got the door slammed in his face rather than getting an answer after all of this time. He really thought maybe this time it would be best to ask, a day before the score where they could settle whatever was going on between them, but apparently it still wasn't the time.

But even with that being said, Ryan wasn't complete. He was a German Sheppard who needed his ball, and he was going to get it. Somehow, someway.

He just had to think of something by the morning.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're seriously getting closer to the end guys! It's sad to say, but there's no worries! There's much more planned... (;

"Rae, are you there?"

A voice cut through a nine way earpiece.

"What the fuck, Lazer, I thought we were using middle names?!"

A different, younger voice.

"Wha-what?! That _is_ a middle name! What are you talking about?!"

"No, that's my actual name!"

"Goddammit, I'm not talking to you, Swagmaster, I'm talking to fucking Da- oh fuck this. D, wherever the fuck you are, you better answer me so I can stop talking to this asshole."

Dakota chuckled lightly on her end of the earpiece, knowing well that this whole code name/middle name thing was going to be confusing, but she didn't plan for it this early on. They didn't even start the heist yet, and here they were, Ray and Geoff hashing it out because Dakota's middle name just so happened to be her best friend's name. 

The woman, outfitted in all black, her face covered with dark shades and a black cap that fit down well over the front of her head, just enough so no one would recognize her, reached for the small button on her earpiece and pressed it firmly. 

"I'm here, boss. We're all in waiting for your order. What's your location?"

Geoff, still in a van with Jack and Gavin while riding it out to the nearest county that wasn't in Tongva, replied almost instantly. "Okay good. We're uh-" he paused to take a look outside of the passenger window, reading a sign that marked his position, "-about ten minutes from our destination. Won't be too long if Jack steps on the gas a bit."

Jack, driving the speed limit, took the hint and pressed a little further on the pedal, putting the whole van ten miles per hour more than what they were originally going. It was like his friend said, they'd be there in no time.

"We'll make contact with you as soon as we hit our spot," Geoff further instructed, then signing off of the earpiece to give himself a little peace and quiet before everything was about to go down. 

Earlier in the day, everyone met up in the lobby right at seven, dressed and prepped with everything they were supposed to bring or going to bring. The vans were ready, prepared with every weapon and gadget that they all needed for their roles and filled to the brim with gas so there wouldn't have to be any pit stops before getting to their designated areas. 

They went over the plan step by step with Lest and Burnie on speaker, talked any discontinuities over that needed to be fixed, and sure that everything was engraved into their minds and wouldn't slip away, all seven of the crew members made it out to their specific vans and took off in different directions.

Everything was lining up pretty perfectly. It was almost five, meaning most every civilian was going to be getting off of work and cashing in their checks or whatever it was that they were going to be doing at a bank, and while that meant a little more of a risk and more crowding inside of the building, it also meant more of a potential cut, theoretically at least. But even in theory, Geoff was confident in the team going in on the inside, and he knew that whatever the case may be, they'd all handle it.

The ride with Geoff, Gavin, and Jack was fun and relaxing, considering that their jobs were pretty easy this time, and they even tried coming up with a team name for the three of them since they were the only team that didn't actually have a name for itself. They finally decided on "Plan Fat," since Gavin and Geoff were paired up as "Plan G," and Geoff just threw out "fat" for Jack.

On the other hand, the other team wasn't having too much fun. With Michael driving, he was pretty dead set on being focused rather than do anything to somehow get off track while driving to the bank, and that left Ray, Ryan, and Dak to talk amongst themselves, but very awkwardly. Any other time it would have been fine, they would have had the time of their lives like Plan Fat did, but ever since Dakota told Ray that she kissed Ryan, he felt utterly uncomfortable when around the two. 

It wasn't because he didn't want them to be together, God, that was obviously not the case at all. But it was the fact that ever since then, he always noticed the tension in the air behind the two, and he didn't even know about the _other_ occasion that happened. The air was just too intense for his liking, and when he got nervous or uncomfortable, he became automatically weird and awkward, spluttering out words when spoken to and stammering and laughing skittishly out of nowhere. And because he was being weird, it made everyone else weird along with him.

But once the van parked up in the hills surrounding the Liberty Two Bank and the four got out to clean it of everything- prints, evidence, all of their stuff- the demeanor changed, and the professionalism that they all knew best suddenly returned as they all got into position. 

And there they were, Ray up at his vantage point, Dakota, Ryan, and Michael standing just out of sight of the camera's reach as they started to settle in for their part. Dakota was already equipped in her headgear, as well as Michael, but Ryan was taking his time to put his on. 

It was his routine, something he did every single time before putting on that famous mask that hid his identity from anybody and everybody, where he put on the face paint to darken the circles around his eyes, just to make sure there was nothing to recognize about him. He painted his face at the Davis building, and every time he was supposed to go on a setup job, and it was something that started long before he ever joined the crew. 

Dakota knew that, because as she watched him precisely paint the black smears around his eyes and swirl them in, she could tell. Things like that were a force a habit, a habit that took time and experience to create. She knew that it was edged into his brain long before they ever met, probably back when he was the Vagabond. 

That was still new to her. Ryan being the Vagabond was something the young woman would have never guessed, just because he didn't seem the type. He didn't seem like a ruthless killer who could and would stop anything in his path, the man that took down unbelievable obstacles by himself, the man who could wipe out an entire city and never even blink an eye. And it wasn't that it scared her, but it more of intrigued her. She wanted to understand why he was that way, why he stopped being that way.

And even though the story he told her the night that they kissed made sense thinking back on it, it was still unbelievable that she was standing right next to the man that had the ability to ruin Los Santos. Dak didn't think it was possible.

"This is gonna be a piece of cake," Michael smirked, looking down over the bank from the slight hill that the three stood on, and as he did, Ryan finished his face paint and began to put his mask on. Dakota took a deeper look at it, and now that she knew, a little bit of recognition came with the gray skull atop his head. Maybe she _did_ see it all over the news and she was just too blind to think about it until now.

All that she needed to really confirm was seeing him in action now.

"You think so?" Ryan questioned, more just to make small talk, and Michael gave a small nod, his beanie not ever leaving his head and the bandanna tied around his neck that swooped to his chest bobbing a bit.

"Yeah, I just have a feeling."

Dakota sighed on the other side of _The Vagabond_ , looking down over the place but not really taking a glance at it. 

"I hope you're right," she muttered loud enough for them to hear, but at just the volume that it was obvious something was eating at her.

"What, you still have that gut instinct that the thing with Lahey isn't over with?" Michael asked softly, his eyes the same shade as his voice. His genuine side always came out when he wasn't being an asshole, and Dakota never steered them wrong so far. He cared about what she had to say, especially if she thought something bad was bound to occur.

"Yeah, it's just getting to me," she admitted, blowing out a breath afterwards. 

Ryan, bending down to pick up the carbine rifle and duffel bag that was lying at his feet, inquired, "Well, hopefully this is the one thing you're wrong about."

She nodded once.

"Yeah... I hope I'm wrong too."

People were coming in and out of the bank and more and more cars were pulling up, backing up Geoff's theory. The three watched silently for a few minutes, taking in the people, the area, everything about the spot that they were gonna have to memorize. They were already eyeing the cameras from afar, making sure to know exactly where they were even though Dakota had that memorized by heart from her last visit to the castle-like structure.

After a bit, the comm that they had in their ears alerted.

"We're here, everyone. Remember, code names, and don't get fucking confused. Now let's do this thing, you beautiful sons 'a bitches!"

Michael had a shit-eating grin on his face while pulling up his bandanna to cover everything but his eyes. He turned to his two friends, looking each of them in the face before grabbing his gun and resting it in both of his hands while slinging on his bag.

"I'm sure you'll be wrong, Rae, so let's just forget about and go kick ourselves some ass, yeah?!"

Instantly, Michael, or code name for the time being, "Vincent," took off towards the bank, leaving Dakota and Ryan to take a small minute to gather themselves. The masked man glanced over at the woman, whose braided, long, dark hair that he just noticed had been recently dyed black to fill in whatever small amounts of lighter color that was starting to show, swayed a bit in the wind. 

Her jaw was tight and he couldn't see her lightly colored blue eyes, but he knew they were wild and full of something that resembled adrenaline, with her pupils busted open wider than normal, much like the first time they ever met. Ryan wished he could have looked into them one last time before starting the score, but when she looked back at him, he dismissed the thought and gave a smirk that he knew she couldn't see under his mask.

"You ready?"

Dakota smiled back, everything that was going on with them washing away because she was more than capable of not letting her personal life get into how well she worked.

"Of course."

With that, the two gave a quick jog to catch up to Michael, and they all equipped their guns to the front of their bodies, bags on their shoulders, ready for anything and everything that could possibly hit them. 

The earpiece chimed in, but the three didn't acknowledge it. 

"Swagmaster here. I've got visual on the inside team, they're heading to the doors."

"Copy that. You better cover their asses."

Ray smirked to himself silently in the tall hills, laying on his stomach and looking through the scope of his pink rifle, locking a target on his three friends that looked like they were straight out of a movie, all unidentified and shit. "If you really believed I wouldn't be able to, Lazer, you wouldn't have put me up here."

"Not denying anything there."

The walk up to the bank felt like it took forever to Dakota. It had been such a long time since she pulled a heist at this level with this much cash at risk, and all of the feelings that she got when she was starting up with her father or when they were at their prime together came rushing back, overwhelming her, and it was an amazing feeling in all honesty.

So long since she got to feel the adrenaline of being pursued, bullets whizzing past her and barely missing her, evading hordes of cops that had no chance at all to ever catch her as she floated through her life, free as a leaf. Dak was all too ready to relive the actual experience.

Luckily as the trio got closer and closer to the doors, there weren't enough people on the outside to notice some strange looking people with headgear and guns, so once they reached the entrance, Michael brought up a boot and kicked the living hell out of it, making the thing fly open as Ryan and Dakota rushed in behind him. Immediately, there were screams, but the group was quick enough to know exactly what to do as the three guards on duty started gathering attention, some even trying to pull their guns.

Dak bee-lined to the man who was pulling his gun out of his holster while Ryan took the only other two guards, and Michael made his way to the bank teller that had the emergency switch below his desk- even though it wouldn't have mattered because Lester was already working the system over, giving it a run for it's money, meaning that right about then the cameras and everything in between wouldn't be working for a few minutes.

They had a short window, but there was no doubt they were going to pull it off.

"Take your hand off of the handle, and we'll be fine here," Dakota said gruffly, training her gun on the man who had no time to take his out of his holster. He froze instantly, looking up towards the woman in front of him, and there was a certain kind of undeniable fear in his eyes. Dakota felt limitless as she watched the color drain from him. God, did she miss this.

As Ryan handled the other two and as the screams kept echoing through the large building, Michael was already at the man and standing on top of the counter, grabbing him by his collar and dragging him up there before putting his carbine to the other person's temple. The man was cowering and whimpering, tears rolling from his eyes as the barrel of the gun lodged into his skull slightly, and Michael had to keep him up with one arm just to make sure he wouldn't drop.

The screams kept getting louder and louder, and getting agitated, Michael pulled his gun away for a split second and emptied a few bullets into the ceiling before putting it back into the bank teller's temple, and it seemed that the screams finally ceased. 

"Jesus, I thought you guys would never shut the fuck up, but that's more like it!" he yelled out, and Dakota wasn't looking at him, but she knew that her friend was smiling underneath his bandanna. She kept her sights on the guard before her while circling to his backside, then butted him a bit and started to push him towards Ryan and his own guards. Rounding them up together would be easier than splitting off.

Michael cleared his throat on the counter top.

"Alright, so this is what's gonna happen. Every single one of you is gonna get down, throw your phones into the middle of the room, put your hands in the air, and no one is gonna move a goddamn muscle, because if you do, you're gonna end up meeting your death a little earlier than your liking. So if you understand the procedure, throw your phones in the middle and then get the fuck down and don't even think about moving."

Immediately there was an outburst of clanking that went on for a minute or so, and then it stopped. Everyone around them started to raise their hands, and none of the three members of the crew proceeded until they knew that every pair of arms in the room were up. Dakota took a glance at Michael at the same time as he did, and they nodded at each other. 

Michael jumped off of the counter and drug his new friend with him, walking over to Ry and Dak. The woman pushed her guard into the little group that Ryan had rounded up, and she met Michael halfway.

"Okay, James, you're gonna have stay here while we get our little buddy here to open the vault," Dakota gestured to Ryan. "Think you can handle that?"

Ryan's eyes glistened underneath the mask.

"I'll see you guys in a few minutes," he winked, then ordered the guards to go to the front of the lobby so he could watch every single person from the only form of entry in the room.

Dak took that as cue to start leading out to the vault, Michael and the bank teller right behind her. They made their way through a door that opened up to a new part of the building with multiple hallways, and just like the manifests told her earlier, she remembered that the middle hallway would go straight to the safe. She trudged through the door and held it open for her followers, and almost broke down when she caught sight of the big tumbler vault with a keypad that had a red light. 

Michael pushed his way past her with the teller and practically threw him at the door. The man cried out and Dakota slapped the wall with a hand that she freed from her gun.

"Hey, none of that shit, we're not gonna hurt you if you get that open quickly and cooperate, got it?" she bit, eyes boring through her glasses at the man, and she watched as he nodded slowly, a lump formed in his throat.

The other member stood directly behind the scared man, watching his every move as he started to punch in a code on the door, telling him to go faster and what not. The keypad made a noise and the red light blinked green, causing the employee to quickly go to the door and pull it open as it was unhinged a bit. Dakota flew to the door and slipped inside, Michael taking the hostage and bringing him in as well.

There was money everywhere. Stacks upon stacks that were all either packaged together or just towered onto one another, holding on with rubber bands. There was definitely enough money to go around, maybe even more than they all anticipated, only further backing up Geoff's instinct to delay the heist a bit. Everything was going unbelievable well.

Dakota zipped open her bag and went to a three shelved cart, piling in the money to the bag as quick as her arms would allow her, and on the other side of the room, Michael was doing the same, only with a little help from the teller that he was demanding to do as he was doing. They worked their spots at a fast pace, picking them clean and then moving on to wherever else they needed to. 

In no time, the whole room was just about empty as they raced to shovel in all of the cash, and if Michael wouldn't have glanced at the random man's watch for a split second, then the three would have completely cleaned the place. 

"Hey, Rae, we gotta bounce and meet James," his Jersey voiced crowded the vault, and Dakota stopped in her tracks, putting in one last stack before turning to face the man.

As soon as he said the name, there were three gunshots, and both of their hearts dropped as they stared at one another, trying to comprehend if they both heard it. Once they realized that they did, Michael butted the teller in the back of the head, dropping him to the floor like a fly, and he and Dak took off to the lobby to go assess the situation.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Dakota questioned as her and her friend sprinted back the way they came. They dodged doors and shelves and everything that they hadn't noticed before then, and the run there was starting to feel longer than it actually was.

"I don't know, but it better not be anything big or we're going to have to put up more a fight than we thought!" Michael replied, pushing his legs and Dakota matched his pace.

She scoffed. "So much for that good feeling, huh?"

"Go screw yourself, Rae."

When both Dak and Michael reached the lobby and turned a corner to get to Ryan, they stopped dead in their tracks when their eyes found blood pooling all over the floor in front of the entrance, splatters accompanying the walls, and three dead bodies lying in said blood, not to mention a wave of crying and shrieks overtaking the whole room. There was so much blood, in fact, that it reminded Dak of a bathtub full of the liquid that shattered and spilled it's contents everywhere. 

Standing over the bodies, recognized as the guards, was Ryan, his carbine resting in his hands and his head lazily dipping over the range of the civilians that were probably praying to God for their lives right at that time. He didn't even look any different from when they left him, besides the fact that his dark clothes were darker and wet, and his mask retained an immense amount of red spatters in the front.

"Dude, what the fuck happened?!" Michael asked sternly, taking a step towards the scene, and as soon as he did, Ryan's mask flicked over to his companion quickly, and the look in his eyes was enough to haunt both people that were staring into them. 

The normal amount of blue was gone, and his pupils were dilated to hell. There was no gleam, no light in them, nothing that seemed even remarkably human or had any kind of Ryan vibe to it. The way he stared at his partners, like a shark, hungry for anything that moved, was so breathtakingly never-wracking that it made it almost impossible for the two to move an inch, in fear they might end up like the guards on the ground.

And then with one blink, the inhumane enigma was gone, and the eyes of Ryan Haywood appeared. 

Just like that, he was himself again. 

_That must be the part of him that I've never witnessed,_ Dakota thought, still a little breathless. _A glimpse of the Vagabond._

Ryan looked down at the mess he was standing in. "They tried to get smart, pull a gun out. Had to make sure there'd be no more problems. You guys didn't need my bag to get anything?"

Michael shook his head. "Trust me, man, these bags fit in that shit pretty good, and you're not gonna believe how much was actually in there!'

The Jersey man took Ryan's actions well, blew off the few seconds before as if it was nothing, and it probably really wasn't anything to him at all. He was used to seeing Ryan like that, living with him and being around him for the past few years. Ryan shrugged it off too, like he didn't even care that he just ended three lives that quickly, no remorse to his decisions at all.

And Dak was the same way, she had to be in that lifestyle because it was the survival of the fittest or else she would have never lived as long as she did. But the fact that there was no afterthought to something so brutal was what surprised her the most. She was ruthless, but even she had a thought for every single person's life that she ended, unless they utterly deserved it. 

Ryan on the other hand... he didn't care. Maybe even _enjoyed_ it, but she didn't see enough to conclude that yet. Wouldn't surprise her, given the reputation that the Vagabond made for himself as a merc.

Finally catching her breath and regaining her hardened composure, she swung the bag to her back and stepped over the bodies, getting to the doors. There were sirens that weren't too far off, but gave them just enough time to find a place to take cover and lay some suppression onto the waves of heat that were going to rain down on them.

"Cops are coming, right on time too. We need to get out there and find a place to lay low so we can hurry up and get out of this place. Ray has the road spikes, right?" Dakota kept her gaze outside.

"Yeah, he's supposed to be laying it down at the point of entry that the pigs are gonna take," Michael huffed. 

"We can't say that's gonna stop any other units though, like the FIB for instance," Ryan interjected. "Lahey could still be coming."

"Key word," Michael pointed a finger at the mask. "For instance."

"That's... that's two words."

"Shut the hell up and come outside so we can get these sons of bitches."

Leaving the inside of the bank a shriveling mess, everyone either crying or laying to the ground in a fetal position, the trio headed outside after locking the entrance with a spare chain from Ryan's bag. They searched wildly for a place to bunker down, and when Dak suggested that they just take random cover behind the dozens of cars in the parking lot since there weren't many options, they took off in different directions and found the areas that they were going to secure.

Dakota went to the front, closest to the point where the sirens were getting closer and louder, and she ducked behind a large pickup truck's back tires as the other two took opposite sides a few rows back from where she was. Together they formed a flanking position, more evasive than just being all clumped in the same spot, and Dak noticed that whenever they needed to make a run for it when the battle lightened up, they weren't that far from the side of the building that had the manhole. 

"What's going on out there, guys?" a deeper voice asked in the earpiece, and Dak realized it was Jack.

Ray cut in from his place and answered, "We're just waiting on these guys to show up now, I laid down spikes so they're gonna have a pretty rough welcome once they-"

The open air in the rolling hills of Tongva was interrupted by blaring sirens, but as quick as the sirens came, so did a loud pop. Ray trained his scope over to where he put down the spikes, and his jaw dropped as he watched the first car hit the trap, spinning out of control as the tireless wheels scraped loudly against the asphalt. The car couldn't contain itself and started to flip, and after the third flip, it landed on the roof, not so far from where Dakota was positioned. 

The rest of the squad that was rolling up slammed on their brakes, barely missing the spikes and barely missing one another. 

The sniper's hand was still pressed on the button of his earpiece as he observed in awe, and the team in the van heard every single thing. 

"What the bloody hell was that?!" a British voice chimed in.

"That would be the sound of a cop car destroying itself on my spikes, now upside down and starting to smoke," Ray stated as if it was the most casual thing he ever said in his entire life. Honestly, it _was_ one of the most casual things he ever did say.

"Are you guys alright?" Jack's tone was a little worried, but the crew at the bank didn't pay any attention. They were too busy watching as the cops rolled out of the cars, two of them going to check on the overturned vehicle. The rest of them started to run a ways up to the bank, still pretty far from it as the spikes got in their way from entering the parking lot.

Dakota, peaking over the bed of the too tall truck, ducked back down, a smirk visible on her face. This was always the fun part.

She pressed her earpiece. "We're good, Shannon. Gotta go though, keep the gas tank full for us." Everyone could almost hear the total amount of smugness in her voice.

"Following your lead, Rae," she heard Ryan utter through the device. She looked behind her and noticed that there were two heads popped up over cars where they hid, and she gave them a small nod.

When the voices of the police force neared enough where she could understand what they were saying, the woman in black everything leaped upwards, her gun ready and her eyes down the sights.

"Welcome to the show, boys!" she chimed, a wicked smile formed on her lips swollen with the rush of the heist. "It's too bad though," she continued as they looked around confused, holding their weapons on her and yelling for her to put her own down. "Your tickets have already expired."

With that, she popped off two bullets that whirled through the air, hitting one of the men directly in his skull. He dropped like a rock, hitting the ground with a thud, and there was an immediate roar of orders to every other cop to fire, thus ensuing the battle. 

With Dak in the front taking out the closest men, Ryan and Michael were connecting themselves as Team Crazy Mad, relentlessly downing anyone who even got anywhere close to the parking lot from the sides. The cops were trying to be flexible, not all coming in the same way and going through the trees, but no one left their eyesight. And even if one did, Ray was up somewhere, picking off the stragglers or maybe some dumb idiot who thought it'd be a good idea to get close on his own. 

The waves didn't stop because the cars kept piling and piling as more forces came to work, but just like the ones in front of them, they were going to join the body count just as quickly. 

Dakota would maneuver from car to car, dodging the bullets that were directed at her, some barely missing, but she was quick enough to be that risky. Just testing them. The men in blue would get a glimpse of her, start firing, and just when they thought they got close and started to advance, there she would be, the last image they ever saw as she emptied part of her mag into their body or their head.

Because that's the way she liked it. Giving one final hope before taking it all away. It was sort of a game to her and she definitely liked to think of it as one. One big mini game within the actual game itself, seeing how many people she could toy with before voiding them of their life. 

But even with her tactics and the suppressive fire she was getting from behind her and that Ray was providing, the ping of his sniper making himself echo every time he took a shot, it was obvious that there were starting to be too many officers as they all started to pull up, some even coming through the back way.

Ryan turned towards the other driveway, watching as the other cars started to whir in, their sirens blending in with the rest of them and their lights almost blinding him as they screeched in the parking lot. He feel below one of the cars, getting to his bag and looking inside to find what he was looking for. When he finally found it, he bobbed back up and set his gun on the roof of a random car.

"Vincent, cover me for a second!" He yelled over the unimaginable sounds of gunfight and sirens and shouts that all mixed together. 

Michael turned and stopped firing, quickly looking to see what Ryan was getting at, and once he saw the rocket launcher in his friend's hands, he laughed.

"Dude, how the _fuck_ did you even keep a rocket launcher in that goddamn bag?! And how did I not notice it before?!"

Ryan shrugged. "Like you said, it was big enough." 

"One sick bastard, dude, I tell you all the time."

Ryan only chuckled as he and Michael faced the new cars. If anyone started to get out and run towards them, Michael would take them out as Ryan loaded a rocket into the heavy weapon. The feeling he felt before, the kind of bloodlust that overtook him inside of the bank, it all came rushing back, and he could feel his breaths shallow as he started to breathe in and out of his nose. 

This was one of the parts he enjoyed the most.

Dakota, still working on the front with Ray as her backup, nearly jumped when she heard a loud explosion come from a ways behind her, and she sprinted to the large truck she was using as cover earlier to turn and see what the hell was going on. She nearly dropped her gun when she realized what was really going on after seeing a chain reaction of the cop cars in the back combusting into flames. People were rolling on the ground, screaming for their dear lives as the cars instantly charred and turned to black, resting in colors of orange and yellow with smoke rolling out of the top of each fire.

And there he was: Ryan standing not too far from them, observing the mess for a short time with an RPG in his arms, before turning and running back to his cover. He grabbed another rocket and shoved it in, then worked his way through the mass of cars towards where Dakota was. She waited for him as Michael resumed his fire to the front, Ray precisely picking off cops at the same time.

When he finally reached her, he didn't stop, instead kept going through two of the cars she had been using for cover, and she took a glance up to him. As he walked, nonchalantly as ever, he too gave the crouched woman a brief look, but it was enough for her to recognize that same person that she saw in the bank. This man was back, and this time it wasn't for a minute. It was enough time to realize that this dark person was indeed enjoying what he was doing.

And it didn't make her shiver. It didn't make her want to rethink her time as a member of the Fake AH Crew, or to rethink her feelings for the guy that was locked away underneath the mask. Even if she never saw something like she just did, a damn RPG to get rid of the cops, because she was so used to the way her father taught her, it didn't mean that it scared her. Surprised still, yes.

But now, for some odd reason, when others would run and beg for mercy, Dakota was far more _invested_ than anything. She wanted to see more.

_And this is what my life has come to, falling for the Vagabond and not even caring. Good one, Dak,_ she pondered for a moment, quickly getting up and dropping anyone who shot at the skull masked man, Michael and Ray doing the same. 

Her eyes wandered over him as he lifted the arsenal up and over his shoulder, gripping it tight, and not even hesitating to pull the trigger. The rocket flew straight at the mess of cars that were bundled up together on the other side of the road spikes, and cops dove and yelled as they saw it coming, not all as lucky though. An eruption occurred upon impact, and yet another chain reaction of cars bursting into flames afterwards, parts going every which way and bodies lurching into the air.

Ryan didn't even dare move as the farthest officers that were still alive retreated and his friends cleaned the rest of them that were out in the open. Nothing was coming in through the back and the rest of the area that was just obliterated was quiet. It was the perfect time to make a getaway to the sewers. 

Michael jogged his way to Dakota and Ryan slowly walked over to the two, his eyes starting to return to normal.

"Time to go," Dak cooed and they nodded. Michael radioed to Ray to come meet them, and once he trudged his way from the hills, sniper slung over his back with a makeshift strap and pistol resting in one hand, the four followed Dakota as she led them to the manhole. Once there, they opened the hole, dropped inside, and slid the heavy metal sheeting over the hole before making their way through the tunnels below.

-

Everyone was dead by the time Dawson Lahey and his squad of fellow FIB officers that he handpicked- off of the books, of course- were helicoptered to the bank in Tongva from Los Santos, which meant a lot because he was called in as soon as it was aware there was a disturbance, just like he wanted.

But even after dropping everything and getting there as quick as he could, the whole place was set ablaze and either everyone was burned, riddled by bullets, gone, or bleeding out and had no chance of recovering, and the perps were no where in sight. 

They checked everywhere they could, and still there was nothing. Every single thing was clean, he and his team were sure of it.

But that's when he remembered that when Dakota came here, she was staking out the manhole. And that's where he started to head to, sprinting, hoping for any kind of clue and praying for once in his life that something would go his way. And it could have been a long shot.

_Could_ have.

But it wasn't, because when they tore the lid off of the hole and went to the bottom, a black ball cap was lying on the ground silently, and when Lahey picked it up, there was a single strand of dark hair was inside. And he knew a certain someone that had hair that dark and that long.

"Ruiz, give me an evidence bag," he ordered, and the other agent quickly handed one to him, Lahey putting the cap in, hair and all.

"You gonna give that to forensics when they get here? You know they're on the way," Ruiz stated, earning a grin from Lahey.

"But they're on the record, we're not. Gotta make sure what we find is off the record too. But don't worry, this just makes our plan a little easier," Lahey replied, holding the bag up and staring at the contents. "Eat your heart out, Fake AH Crew. Your days are numbered."


	18. Chapter 18

"Holy fucking dicks!"

"You like it?"

"Are you insane?! I goddamn love it!" Geoff exclaimed, his voice cracking on the word "love."

The whole crew was surrounding the back of the van that Plan Fat was driving, way off from the scene of the heist and up on top of Chilliad because once the getaway occurred, everyone decided Chilliad would be the best place to lay low. There was nothing better than San Andreas's largest mountain top, a cable car outlet scaling up the side that Geoff just so happened to buy out for things like they were doing at that moment.

No one would have ever suspected that such an esteemed crew would head into the mountains, in the open, yelling and hollering at the top of their lungs and laughing loudly and throwing rocks at each other after pulling off a pretty hefty score, would they? And that's why it was the perfect cover.

Not only did they sometimes reside there for a while to let the heat of a heist die down, but they'd take trips up there for days on end, renting out a cabin and lounging in the river down the mountain or doing ridiculous stunts and games on the top. Sure, it was a long drive and a draining one at that from Los Santos, but that's just how much the guys loved to be in that atmosphere with one another.

So of course Chilliad was the first place suggested once inside team dove into the van, and after a two hour drive, Jack finally bumped his way up the mountainside, and everyone stumbled over their friends to huddle at the back of the vehicle to observe all of the rewards from the successful job.

Geoff was currently looking into the bags that Michael and Dakota collected from the bank, revealing it to everyone else that hadn't seen the enormous bundles and heaps of money, and everyone was practically gawking over the take.

"This is way better than I imagined!" Ray said loudly. "I mean, I know those bags fit a lot, but, Jesus! This isn't just extra cash for the next few weeks to spend, but maybe the next few months!"

"We're rich, boys!" Gavin chirped, and earning a look from the other members, he immediately added, "Well, more rich than we are now, at least."

Geoff cleared his throat after rolling his eyes at his British friend. "Well, take a fucking load off, men, 'cause we definitely deserve it. Jack and I will count the cuts, but in the meantime, go batshit crazy. We own this land up here after all."

As the crew continued to talk among one another giddily and start to run rampant, going all over the place to do whatever it was they were going to do as Jack and Geoff sat at the back of the van with the money, Dakota couldn't help but smile to herself. She'd never actually pulled a score with such a large number of people- not even that crew she was with for a while as a teen- because she was so used to being by herself or with her dad, but it was a good feeling.

These were the people she could trust. It had been too long that she was on her own, no help and giving her life for no one except herself. And for six guys to come crashing down into her world, ripping apart the walls that she put up and opening her up from the outside, it was a beautiful thing to know that she didn't have to depend on herself anymore. She didn't need to worry, because they gave everything to her, and that meant she gave everything to them.

Growing up on the road and being taught to hijack money for a personal living wasn't exactly the best way to make friends, and even the friends that she did make, no one lasted. Not even when she lived with her mother because they still skipped around to escape Tobias. Every friend that was in Dakota's life before then were no where in sight, but with the Fake AH Crew, she had a feeling that they'd be there for life, no matter what happened.

And her feelings were never wrong.

Turning away from the guys as they went about their separate activities, Dakota made her way over to one of the cliff sides. She wanted a little air to breathe before diving into being crazy with her friends and in all honesty, she wanted to observe the serenity of the mountaintop as the night sky started to emerge. 

She didn't even notice the pair of eyes that was watching her softly as she took in the beauty of nature at the edge in front of her. A pair of slate blue eyes that had smudges of black around the sockets due to an intense amount of rubbing to get off the dark paint, not to mention sweat that aided in the corroding of the paint. 

Eyes that Ryan had to force to look away with and sigh deeply to himself. 

_She's alone, no one else in that vicinity,_ his mind echoed. _The perfect time to say what you need to say. This is it._

Giving a once over to the other guys that were too caught up in either counting money or jacking around, Ryan decided to walk over to Dakota calmly, his heart lightly beating in his sturdy chest with every step he took. What he was about to say was going to be crucial, to himself and to the woman that he was going to be speaking with, and just thinking about it made him nervous.

_How's she going to react?_

When Ryan reached her position, her standing a safe distance from the edge, he made sure to not stand too close as he prepared to himself how to deliver what he wanted to say.

"It's breathtaking, isn't it?" he heard a voice state like butter, and when he realized that it was Dakota, he shrugged.

"Eh, it's alright," Ryan teased with a slight smirk atop his face, causing Dak to cast a glance at him from her shoulder. She noticed how the mask was gone, his eyes were barely dark anymore with small smudges, and his hair was roughed up. Even in his edgy states, he still looked good as ever. But she wasn't the only one admiring her counterpart's looks.

The woman gave a chuckle, returning her view to the area below, full of dark, pastel colors and tiny lights at the base of the mountain where Sandy Shores was. She could make out the Alamo Sea, just a resting body of water that was as still as the air and the world around it. Everything was in it's place, peaceful and calm, and it made her feel secure.

Or maybe that was Ryan's presence that gave her the impression of security, but whatever it was, it was nice.

"Just alright? How dare you, Haywood," Dakota joked.

"I'm just saying," Ryan started, taking another step towards her, "I've seen a lot better."

Dakota could feel the underlying meaning to his words as his face lit up while looking at her, and she felt a deep blush burning at her cheeks, but without her shades or anything to cover it, she had no way to hide. Not like she was going to hide.

"Are you flirting with me, Ryebread?"

"Do you want me to be flirting with you?"

She hesitated for a moment, contemplating what to say, whether to blow him off or to just finally start easing into her _feelings._ Finally, she replied, "Maybe I do."

It wasn't an answer that he was entirely expecting because it had been a long time since the two actually flirted like they used to, and it caught Ryan by surprise, but it also comforted him. Maybe his "confrontation" wouldn't go so bad after all.

"Well then," Ry started. "I was, in fact, flirting with you."

The two shared a smile, and they could have got lost in each other, just standing together and making small talk. It was nice to do that again, to be who they were and to leave everything no holds barred. 

And if that's what was going on, then maybe it was time for Ryan to be no holds barred himself.

"But, uh, that's not why I came over here, just flirting and what not," he sighed, running a hand over the top of his head, flattening his hair in the process. Dakota watched as the pieces of hair rose slowly when his hand left, the natural buoyancy coming back to it.

The Dayley woman raised her eyebrows a tad. "You didn't come to make conversation? Well, I mean, judging by the way you walked up all quietly, maybe you were trying to just stalk me."

Her tone was still playful, and Ryan snickered while shaking his head, his dirty blond/maybe more light brown than anything hair falling out of place a little. 

"I may be a little weird, but I'm not weird enough to do something like that. But, no, I didn't come here to 'stalk you.' I... I wanted to talk."

Dakota's demeanor dropped. When she said after the heist, she didn't mean immediately after. 

"Ryan, can't we talk about this at ho-"

"Dakota, I love you."

The words came out so right, so smoothly, but yet Dak still had a little trouble understanding what he really just said.

"Wait... what did you just say?"

Ryan huffed out a breath and got closer to her, taking her wrists into his palms lightly, and she didn't resist him as her face searched his, waiting for him to repeat the sentence that he just uttered out. Her heart was beating rapidly, starting up and beating like a drum in her chest, and little did she know that Ryan was about to start sweating buckets.

"I said that I love you, Dakota. I love you and I know it's only been a few months, but there have been so many things in my life, things that I was never sure of. But if I've ever known anything out of all thirty five years that I've been alive, you're it."

Their blue oceans were locked, never once breaking or blinking.

"Ry," she trailed off breathlessly, her mind still rotating the gears to try and make sure that she was hearing him correctly, but he cut her off before she could say anything more.

"No, let me talk, please. This can't wait any longer, because I swear I'll go insane if I don't tell you- well, more than I already am. And I know there are things you don't know about me still, things like my dark past, but I know everything about you, and it's still not enough. I want more. I want _you_ ," he stated sternly, open-mouthed and out of breath as he poured his soul into the topic. "And I just... I just need to know how you feel."

Dakota was still trying her hardest to comprehend everything that was being put on her at the moment, silent and having nothing to say because it was all still working itself out inside of her brain. 

There he was, this man that she was attracted to from the beginning whom she developed feelings for and finally admitted to herself that she came to love, standing before her and expressing his own love for her, and also asking her if she felt the same way. Not only did she love him, but he happened to be the most intimidating and ruthless mercenary at one point in his life and still had the capability of being that way even though she didn't care, and he thought she didn't know.

What exactly was she supposed to do? Tell him that she knows who he is and then say she loves him back and doesn't care about his dark persona? 

It wasn't like Dakota didn't want to let him know, to finally end the suffering that she caused him and to finally let her feelings ebb and flow after all of this time, to let her barrier down and let Ryan be the one who broke in with a hammer. She wanted nothing more than to do so, and there was nothing stopping her from doing so.

No in between the lines meaning, no more excuses, no more fear and confusion, no more anything that held her back from getting what she wanted, the person that she wanted ever since she laid eyes on him, even if she didn't know it then.

 _So what are you waiting for, dumbass, say it!_ she yelled at herself.

As Dakota gazed into the man's eyes, the ones that she had grown so accustomed to, the ones that she never got enough of, and she felt a twinge in her heart. He needed to know, too.

"Ryan," she finally let out. "I-"

Before she could even finish the sentence, to reply, to tell him that she too felt the same way, a phone started to ring loudly through the calm and silent air of Chilliad, but not from where they were standing. Dakota paused to listen to it because not only did the ringing sound familiar, but it sounded like her own ringtone.

The two, a little disoriented, gave each other a confused look. Hesitantly, Ryan spoke, a little annoyed and a little hurt.

"Isn't... Isn't that your phone?"

Dakota replied with a small nod, and after another glance, they both started off towards the van that Geoff and Jack were sitting on the back of, not even counting the money as they tried themselves to find the source of the ringing.

"God fucking dammit!" Geoff cursed loudly while rifling through all of the bags in the back of the van. "Where the hell is that coming from?!"

"It's my phone, check the bag with the shades that I was wearing earlier, its closest to corner over there," Dak stated as she approached the van, pointing her finger over to where she put the bag last. Geoff complied with her order, snatching the bag and opening it at the same time. He dug his hand inside and felt around for a few seconds. The hand finally surfaced with a smartphone, and it was indeed lighting up and ringing.

The four looked at it as it kept ringing and ringing as if it were never going to stop. They didn't answer it quickly because they _knew_ that no one should have been calling them. The girlfriends and wife of the crew knew not to disturb them and the only other person that could have been calling them was Burnie or Lester, but they were on the nine way earpiece, and the heist was over.

Didn't help that the number was an unknown caller.

At this point, the four were all a little overwhelmed and definitely too curious for their own good, not to mention dazed. This wasn't part of the plan, so what were they supposed to do?

Geoff threw his gaze onto Dakota, a sort of cold and wary stare making way into his light eyes, and his face was full of something that no one could suddenly decipher. 

"You gonna answer it?" his voice was softer than Dakota expected it to be and it caught her off guard when he offered the device to her slowly. Without saying a word, the woman nodded and reached for her phone that was ringing so vibrantly, and she hesitated for one last moment before finally clicking her thumb over the prompt to accept the call, putting it on speaker after.

Immediately, a voice that none of them had ever even heard echoed through the other end of the line and registered in the late sky, and for some reason, it was enough to haunt them even though they had no recognition to it at all.

"Jesus, I never thought you would answer, Dakota!" the voice laughed, and it was a man's. "Then again, it was pretty hard for me to track down this number. You're very tricky to find in all honesty. But I have so many connections that it made it a bit easier. Wish I would have used those connections sooner."

Dakota stood, phone in hand and other arm crossed underneath her chest, and with every word that was uttered from her line, her facial expression would remain constant and stay the same rather than skip around. The other three wondered how she managed to do so, because after just a few sentences, they were already pissed off and confused as ever.

"Don't believe we've met," Dak stated simply, her braided hair swinging slightly in the breeze that caressed them all. 

The younger group was still messing around too far away to hear what was happening, and she admired them, wishing she could be over there and not where she was, dealing with some unknown assailant who somehow had her phone number.

"Oh, but we have," the voice almost hissed, a dissonant to her ears that almost made her cringe. She didn't understand how such a nerving voice could have such a strange sense of familiarity. 

_What was it about him that made him so familiar?!_

"Then you're gonna have to refresh my memory," she trilled her lips after her sentence, and while the guys thought she seemed composed, she was just really, really good at hiding her freak out on the inside because there was only one person who would be onto her, someone she didn't have a good feeling about the whole time that he even started to trail the crew-

"I think you know exactly who I am, and that's why you're trying to play it off, to _stall_. But don't worry, we both know that all that matters is you know."

"And we both know that mind games don't phase me, so why don't you cut it and just take off the mask?"

The anticipation surrounding them all thickened, almost making the atmosphere turn from gaseous to solid, and then there was a chuckle from the phone.

"You're very convincing. That's why it always took me so long to prove who you are. But you got me. Fine. Unless you're entirely stupid and not the mastermind I made you out to be, you should know who I am by now. It's not that hard to figure out. Take a wild guess."

"Lahey."

"See? Wasn't that hard was it?"

"Save the bullshit. Just get to the point. Why are you calling me?"

There was a slight pause, causing Jack to shift uncomfortably from sitting to standing, and Geoff too followed him, standing with the rest of the group and bringing his fingertips to his lips to nervously chew on his nails. The name Lahey was enough to make his skin crawl, and he half wondered if he should have listened to Dakota in the first place about postponing the heist and waiting until the shitstorm blew over.

"Because for a high maintenance criminal, you sure don't know how to clean up after yourself, Dak."

Confusion immediately struck home with Dakota, and finally her face faltered and she let her human side show through.

"What are you talking about?" she questioned bitterly, but not enough to phase her companions and convince them that she was still hard as a rock.

Lahey breathed in on the end of the line, and it was enough to make them all cringe as he spoke. "I mean, where'd you last leave your hat, Dakota? Because if I'm not mistaken, it's in my hand right now."

Silence.

Absolute silence.

There was nothing more than the sound of the slight wind and the howl of the other three men that were having the time of their lives meters away from the rest of the crew that was too busy stressing out and biting their tongues, observing the dark haired Dayley as they realized she indeed did not have the hat on that she did before they started the heist.

At this point, the head of the Fake AH Crew was staring daggers into the woman that was holding the phone, both of their faces full of emotions and full of expressions that were hard to make out for Jack and Ryan, but they knew one thing about Dak as she steadily stared into her hand and refused to look up from it: she was probably wondering how she missed it, and was beating the hell out of herself for being so irresponsible.

And sure enough, she was, because _how could someone so professional and so witty and so good forget that she was wearing a fucking hat?!_ she thought. 

It was just too simple of a mistake in all of the action and excitement that was prevailing to make, but somehow she made it, and now she had to pay for it.

"You still there?" Lahey's voice almost gave away the smile that he was trying to hide from wherever the hell he was, and Dakota hated him for it, more than she hated herself at the time.

"What do you want from me? You have enough proof to put me away, so I don't understand why you're not triangulating the call and siccing people on me right now," she stated calmly, but on the inside, she was a mess. Ryan could tell it from a mile away, and he wanted nothing more than to comfort her, but he knew that there was no way that he could in the current position. 

"Well, it's simple. I want to help you get rid of it."

"What?"

"You heard me right. I. Want. To. Help. You. Get. Rid. Of. It."

"I-I don't understa-"

"God, you really don't appreciate a good offer when it's given to you, do it?" Lahey sighed. "You're in trouble and I'm in trouble. You are about to get yourself and your whole crew either dead or caught, and my boss needs some answers about you soon or I'm about to be cut off. Now, I can't afford that, and you can't risk all of your friends or whatever they are to you. So help me help you. Give me some info, no matter what it is, and I'll give you the hat back, which does have hair on it by the way. And I know you're not in the system, but trust me, I have so many files on you that it would lead to you eventually, especially the fact that a few of my friends are recording this call for our sake. So, either all of you meet me and my personnel and we can get this over with, or you're gonna have a hell of a time escaping every force that rains down upon you wherever you go. Your choice."

Lahey was bluffing. Everyone surrounding the phone knew it. It wasn't too hard to figure out, especially given the circumstances. He practically gave himself up, saying that he had enough files about Dak to get her caught up, but that could have been the info he gave to his boss. Instead, Lahey was hoping that the crew was stupid enough to be so scared and paranoid that they would listen to him and follow through with his "elaborate plan."

And if that's what he wanted, then Dakota was gonna give it to him for the time being.

Without even acknowledging the whispers that Geoff was harshly cutting towards her, or the pleading stare from Jack, or the concerned, puppy dog eyes that she was receiving from the man that she was supposed to confess her love to until they got interrupted, Dakota instantly replied to the FIB agent.

"Where should we meet you?"

A laugh, followed by, "The abandoned bunker in Paletto Bay. Do you know where-"

"Good. Meet you there at 10. That's the quickest we can get there."

Her thumb pressed the "end call" button, and with that, she walked over to Gavin, Michael, and Ray as they all yelled and laughed to inform them to meet the rest of the crew at the van to discuss a "serious matter that was going down." Their expressions changed pretty quickly and they followed her back to the van and joined their friends, Dakota getting into the middle of the little circle that was formed around the back.

Geoff was completely livid when she came back.

"Are you fucking insane?! Why the hell did you agree to meet him?!"

The woman flashed her eyes to her boss, and smoothly, she replied, "You didn't listen to me last time, and now we're screwed of a mistake that _I_ made. And I'm going to fix it. Either you can join me, or you can terminate me now and move on with your life and business without me, but no matter what you choose, I'm ending this, and I'm going to make it right."

As a confused Team Lads stood around, arms slack and faces worried as they were still not filled in on the situation, Geoff couldn't help but look away, deeply considering her words. She was right. He messed up by not listening to her, and now she was the one who dug herself a hole and had to get out of it. And as he told himself so long ago, he didn't hate her. He didn't, otherwise she would have been long gone. He was just stubborn and it made his vision blurry when it came to her.

If she was brave enough to admit her mistakes and to own up to them, swearing to fix them whether she had backup or not, then he was man enough to know when he was in the wrong and to understand her and listen. Finally listen.

Geoff took a glance at all of his friends, the sun setting behind the mountains and the darkness trying to settle in after it. It was beautiful, and if it were any other night, then Geoff probably would be sitting outside on his high end porch/balcony thing, watching the sky as it changed and drinking a fine aged whiskey while Griffon slept or watched it with him. But tonight, it was much different, and he knew it.

"Okay."


	19. Chapter 19

Preparation was never Dakota's strong suit. 

In fact, it was absolutely nerve-wracking for her to prepare for anything at all, whether that involved her criminal lifestyle, her short list of friends, her even shorter list of family members- since no one that she knew of that was blood was still alive. Nothing was as sure as it seemed, especially when it came to Dakota planning for whatever it may be.

After weeks of rounding around one particular place and understanding the rhythm of the place and even getting on the inside to infiltrate and locate a client's transcripts, that didn't turn out too well because in the process she not only managed to piss off a newly reigning crew, she also didn't even receive any pay for her work, no matter how long it took her to even establish a solid scheme. But that ended in her joining a crew that was now her life, so that one didn't end too bad.

Making blueprints for the heist on the Liberty Two Bank in Tongva definitely didn't go as it should have considering that they had a stalker case them and ruin the entire existence of their mastermind procedure, further hindering them with obstacles even after the heist, so there was that. 

She worried herself to the core when all of her feelings for Ryan emerged, and after planning for so long to tell him how she felt, even after going to Griffon for help, it took her a long time to even admit to herself that what she felt was true, and when the time came for her to let all of her worries coincide, the stalker came and screwed that up as well. Not even the fact that she didn't get to say "I love you" when she wanted, but the fact that the man who ruined the sudden chance wouldn't even have messed it up if the plan that was drawn out for the heist had been delayed a little.

But _noooo_ , the heist just had to go on, and the love that she couldn't hold back anymore had to be put off even further, making the anxiety that she was suddenly feeling after Ryan's confession even worse than it was when he was saying it.

But she couldn't be mad at Geoff anymore, because there she was, listing off her past discontinuities that had to do with her own preparation, and that was only the mess ups that occurred in the past few months, not the ones that were there since the beginning of time. 

So to say that Dakota was never good at preparing things either for herself or for others was an absolute truth that she thought should be shouted from rooftops and slathered on to the billboards in downtown Los Santos where everyone could see and understand the hatred she had for preparation.

And even as she sat in the back of the van, crowded by the Lads as the Gents were all scrunched into the seat up front, she hoped and prayed to herself that whatever she contributed to the plan with the Lahey thing, it wouldn't be doomed as soon as she spoke a word.

Jack, resting in the driver's seat, had a set of binoculars and was scoping out of the windshield because yes, normal people just randomly have binoculars sitting in a van because "something could happen where they were needed." And while Jack was right about it for once, it didn't mean that he still didn't get a hell of a response when he just pulled the damn things out of the glove compartment whenever he parked the van at the vantage point on a hill about a football field length away from the meeting spot with Lahey.

Geoff, much to his total dismay, was in between Jack and Ryan, helping out the driver by keeping his own eye on the bunker down the slope, watching out in the treeline that surrounded every side of the dilapidated military location that never really passed as one. Ryan sat soundly, doing whatever Geoff told him to do, and Dakota and the Lads readied their weapons by checking clips and either emptying or replacing them.

None of the crew even knew about the bunker as they never even heard about how the military did all kinds of random research and rocket and missile tech out in Paletto Bay, but Dakota knew for a fact exactly where to go, because it was one of the many memories of her childhood.

The bunker held a lot of memories for Dak, the first ever being when her father took her to the enclosed, fairly large, concrete place that was riddled in graffiti and being overrun with weeds and grass just to take her out for a good time. They both toured the bunker, Tobias making up stories and chasing her around and making her laugh any way he could as man and daughter took in every inch of the structure, just enjoying the presence of each other. Little Dakota even got lost at one point, wandering around the cold hallways, shivering and observing the cracks in the walls and the way that pieces of the concrete started to slowly crumble at corners, admiring just how absolutely large one abandoned place could be.

As she shackled around, arms tucked together and gawking at the massive scale and the old rooms littered with metal things and tools that she had no idea what they were, she wasn't even concerned about finding her father, and it was the first place she found her own independence. The bunker, no longer bothered with and no longer worried about, only a place for teenagers seeking a thrill to explore, was there for her many times after that. Either during a fight between her parents, or more specifically, the day that her mother died, the first time Dakota had to shoot a gun to kill...

It was hard. She even found herself being drawn back as an adult when she finally returned to San Andreas after her and her father's retirement, and the first place she stopped was the bunker, comforting her and soothing her as it had many times when she was a preteen. Even when Tobias finally passed, she didn't book a flight to Liberty City, she didn't drive to Burnie's house like he wanted her to after giving her the info... She took a long trip up to her old "hometown" and just wandered around the property that the military no longer needed, much like the first encounter she ever had when Tobias showed it to her.

For some reason, it gave her an absolute comfort that wasn't always there inside of her.

"Does anyone even see anything yet?" Ray asked from the back, trilling his lips and crossing his arms over his chest as he sat criss-cross on the carpeted van floor.

"No," Jack sighed, leaning back in the driver's seat to take a break, his hand reaching for his beard to stroke it. "It's also really hard to even tell with all of the trees and how big the bunker is underground. My guess is they're already inside."

"Shouldn't we go then?" Gavin pushed his way through his young friends and leaned on the seat in the front, his elbows sticking out. Geoff, still looking towards the bunker, shook his head.

"I don't think it's a good idea to just rush in there."

"Then what do you suggest?"

The question was relatively simple, something that Geoff would have answered easily if it were any other circumstance. But one little factor played in his mind that made him stop and really think about how he was going to respond: Dakota.

She was right when she said that she got them into this mess over a stupid mistake. At the same time, he hadn't listened to her about the whole Lahey thing, and ever since the phone call, he knew that he was dead wrong to totally rule out any kind of say that Dak had in a matter. If he would have just kept an open mind and not been so stubborn, then maybe they'd be back in LS or close to it, up to their necks in their own money while laughing and drinking and whatever else.

But instead there they were, set sail into some kind of scenario that was bound to end up an inevitable trap, and it was partially his fault. 

He had to put down the reins and remember who he was at some point.

Geoff's head swiveled slowly to Dakota, his arm coming across the seat and resting on it as his body turned along with his head. The rest of the crew followed his lead, their eyes wandering to their friend and trying to comprehend what he was doing.

Geoff cleared his throat. "What do you think, D? It's your call."

His gaze lingered on her softly, and she observed his face. This person, the one looking at her, was the man who asked her to join the crew. Not the one who barged into her house and the one who wanted to kill her when he figured out who she was, but the one that genuinely wanted to look after his crew and to make the decision that was best for all of them. The man that she started to get to know before he shut her out and started to act indifferently towards her. 

This was the human side of Geoff Ramsey, his blue eyes tender and his face relaxed, beard that had grown from a mustache the first time she ever saw him, and words that were nonchalant rather than tense and precise. He really wanted her opinion, and this time, he was going to value it. 

She knew it.

"Well, we all know how this is gonna go. We have to be prepared for anything," she started, and though there was a plan lodged into her brain, she still wanted to include Geoff's thoughts on it, no matter if he gave her control. "So I was thinking we go in slow and cautious and split off, try to flank them. You good with that?"

The tattooed individual hesitated for a brief second, wondering just why she would even ask his opinion after he gave her the torch to carry, but when he saw the glint in her eyes as they searched each other, he realized that she was doing it out of respect. And that sparked admiration in Geoff. 

He gave her a nod, a light smirk atop his lips. "Yeah, sounds like the best option."

"Okay, I hate to break it to your whole little bonding moment," Jack bombarded, interrupting the slight conversation at hand. "But uh, there are some people walking into the bunker."

Immediately, the crew turned their heads simultaneously to observe exactly what Jack was talking about, and it confused them all to death when they looked down the hill and found a small group of four people heading into the bunker. 

"Wait, wait, wait," Ryan objected, his brows furrowing as he clutched the mask tightly that was in both of his hands and wrung it. "None of those guys are Lahey, which means that he's already inside. This is starting to look more and more like an ambush."

"Exactly why we have to be on our toes in there," Dakota responded. "If we're not careful, splitting off from each other can be fatal, but right now it's looking like the best option so we don't all get clumped up together and make a bigger and easier target."

"And what if something happens to one of the groups and the others can't get to them?" Michael interjected, his face questioning as Dakota craned her neck to listen to him.

"Then we need to make a priority."

"Like what, exactly?"

Dak paused, glancing at each of her friend's faces. "It's gonna sound harsh, but no matter what happens, our main objective is to take out Lahey. That goes for anything."

There was a long silence in the van, like the world stopped spinning and there was no more air, no more life, nothing there anymore. The men had no idea what to say, so they just let the words marinate in their brains. She was right, it did sound harsh. But the more and more they thought about it, the more and more it sounded necessary. 

There was no way in Hell that any of them would risk going to prison for years on end. They'd all rather die. And now that the fork in the road was staring them in the face, either live their life in prison or die trying to get out of it, it was starting to become clearer that Dakota's "rule" was almost a necessity. And that was only if something bad happened to any of them.

The first one to speak up was Ray. 

"I'm in," he spoke confidently, mouth pulled into a tight line, but his face glistened with the type of pride that someone would find on a character from a movie who was about to make a last stand. "No matter what, we kill that douchebag."

"I'm in too," Jack stated. Then next to agree was Gavin, then Michael, then Geoff. Everyone in some way had been okay with the priority that Dakota made because they were okay with making a sacrifice. They knew it was the right thing to do to make the mess that they were in go away, and they were perfectly fine with the decision that they were making.

But during the whole thing, the only person who still couldn't grasp the idea was Ryan. And it wasn't because he was scared. He was the goddamn Vagabond. There was nothing that could scare him out of anything, let alone taking out a few FIB agents who were nobodies. At least, nothing scared him up until that point in his life, because as he sat there in the front and listened to the proposition being placed in front of him, he couldn't help but somehow feel terrified of going through with it. Not for him, not for his crew, but for Dakota.

Usually he wouldn't feel that way. Usually, his psychotic persona and his hardened way of thinking wouldn't let him get scared of anything because he was the one inducing the fear. But he also thought he could never be a person, never care for others like he did the guys, and never love someone like he loved Dakota. And there she was, yet again making him doubt himself because he was indeed scared for her.

Not the fact that she would get herself killed somehow. He didn't ever question her skill; she probably could out beat him even in his Vagabond form in ways. Dakota was more than capable of taking care of herself. The part that scared him was the fact that she wasn't entirely as invincible as everybody in that van believed that they were, and while it was a truth that they all faced every single heist, she just doubled his paranoia that one of the people that he deeply troubled himself over could be gone in the blink of an eye.

And it never bothered him before, not at the heist, not any jobs that she went on, not anytime before then, so he didn't know why he was so worried. Maybe he was just thinking that something could happen to either of them and it would be possible that Ryan would never have his answer and that Dakota couldn't answer him. 

If anything, Ryan was terrified that they would never have the chance to be together after the little suicide mission that they were all planning.

No matter if he was fearful or not, the stares that he got were tearing him apart. He wanted to say no and to take all of them back home so no one even had the chance of getting hurt, but when his eyes met Dakota's as he looked around the interior of the vehicle, the worry inside of him stopped. 

She needed him as much as she needed the other guys to finish the job. She needed him to be in there to help and to stop the impending doom that would rain down upon them if Lahey ever got that hat back to LS. She needed him, and he had to be there for her, not to mention the men that even made him human in the first place. 

They were all going to jump into the fire together, one way or another.

Ryan pulled his mask up to his face, looking into the deep void of the inside as if he were about to strap it on, then stopped midway. His face flickered to the side, back towards where his friends were all awaiting an answer, and his wicked smile almost made them all cringe with joy. 

"Count me in."

Dakota passed him a grin, her heart fluttering with it at just the sight of the man, and he gave her a wink, followed by him throwing his mask on and almost emanating in the familiar, lovely feeling of his darker self.

"Well, since we're all settled," Geoff broke their attention, "why don't we all check clips and strap up, bitches?!"

"Fuck yeah!"

The crew took a few moments to gather themselves, checking handguns and assault rifles and loading knives into halters, whatever they had from the heist that they could make useful while in combat. The Lads and Dakota were the first to exit the van, stepping through the doors as Gavin opened them wide enough for all four to fit through, as the Gents cautiously left the front of the van.

Though everyone made it a point to be as wary as possible, they wasted no time in getting down the slope of the hill and making a bee line towards the entrance of the bunker. It was as if every single member were part of a movie, faces brooding and hands glued tightly to their weapons while striding in almost leaps and bounds.

Dakota was the first to reach the entry point, halting at the opening and waiting for her friends to surround her. Their eyes remained attentive as their lips stayed flat-lined, observing the woman as she lightly whipped her braid that cascaded her shoulder to her back, strands loosely flying out of place as the immense amount of work she had been putting in from the heist until then had caught up to her.

As Dak looked over the men she came to call family over the past few months, her glance connected with the stare of Ryan and his mask, and it took everything in her not to just break down and give him the answer that she so desperately needed to let out and that he so desperately needed to hear. But unfortunately, all of that had to wait, even with the possibility that something could happen to either of them. With heaviness in her heart, she tore her eyes from him and returned her attention the group.

"Alright, so this place is big, we can cover it without having to be completely isolated by ourselves. I think pairs will work just fine, with the exception of a three to a party," she stated, earning a subtle nod from Geoff in the corner of her vision.

"I know this place," Jack interjected while stepping forward. "I've been here before and I know a pretty good layout."

"I want you with me then," Dakota replied quickly. "This whole place is pretty narrow in the hallways, but since you understand the mapping, I'm sure we can put our heads together to find out where these people are because there are some rooms I'm thinking of that he could use for a potential ambush."

"I can take Michael and Gav and we can parallel ourselves to you, go the opposite way that you and Jack are going," comes Geoff's voice, causing Dakota's head to swivel to him with an approving indication of her head, prompting the three to clump together and get behind Jack and Dak's position on the entry way.

"That leaves Ray and Ryan," she breathed out. "They can take the backside of the bunker. It's a little bit of a hike from here, but it doesn't take long and it gives a pretty good sweep of the places that aren't already gonna be covered. We can stay connected with our ear pieces."

"You got it."

The two men replied with an understanding of their part of the plan, and just as they began to walk off towards the other end, away from the rest of the group to get a head start on their walk, Dakota stopped them.

Her face was full of something that no one could quite read as her eyes nearly seemed to widen bewilderingly, a hint of worry glistening in her corneas that she shook off fairly quickly for the sake of remaining calm, but every man caught it just as it disappeared. 

She took a moment, knowing that they didn't have that much time left for the sole purpose that Lahey and his men were expecting them and taking time to plan meant the less the chance of catching the FIB agents off guard, but as she looked around the Fake AH Crew and back to the men stood a few yards away, she also knew that this moment could be all they had left with one another. And for the first time since her father died, she was actually worried to lose them.

All of them.

Each. And. Every. One.

With the watchful stares that blanketed her figure, Dakota sighed lightly. There was so much to say to every man, but it was impossible to have enough time to spare in order to do so. Instead, she decided to take a different approach.

"No matter what, I believe in you guys. I know it may not mean much, but compared to my first impressions of all of you, I didn't even think you were worth the fight the moment you stepped foot into my house. And all of you have proved me completely fucking wrong," she stopped as her view landed on Ryan for a brief moment, then focused again. "And besides Burnie, you're the only family I have. And if you guys aren't worth the fight, then nothing in this goddamn world is."

For once, as her words resonated in the chilling evening air, none of the crew said a word. Nobody laughed. Nobody mocked her. Nobody made a comment or even a sound for that matter. Because they were satisfied. In that moment, if that was the last time they ever met up again, then it was perfect. Nothing more could have sweetened the mood other than just being by each other and hearing the words that they felt inside being said by someone other than themselves. 

And rather than elaborating or giving their own small speeches one by one, there was a perfection to the simplicity of Dakota's words. And they knew that she knew that they wouldn't be anywhere else, and they all felt the same.

Ryan's hand found the top of his mask, and he gave a small, playful salute.

"We'll see you guys on the other side of the carnage," he smiled as he spoke though they couldn't see it.

And with that, Ryan and Ray began to make their way to the back of the bunker.

Dakota's lips pulled into a smirk as she and the remaining guys watched the two take off into the night, and once they faded, she brought her gun up readily, staring into the open mouth of the bunker that the five members were currently positioned in front of. After a look back at the men that were behind her, she mentally sighed and prepared herself for the hell that was about to ensue as she stepped into the military structure, leading the way with nothing but a pistol, her mind, and four men out of six that broke into her life and turned her world upside down.


	20. Chapter 20

The darkness inside of the bunker was completely unbelievable, almost darker than usual when Dakota would explore it as a teenager at night. Jack, too, thought of how pitch black the narrow hallway they were in was, and it would have made his nerves act up had he not turned on his flashlight that he kept in the van. It had been almost ten minutes since Geoff, Michael, and Gavin split the opposite way from the two, and during all of that time, a sound was never made or heard unfortunately. That fact alone made the whole situation a little more tense than both Dakota and Jack would have liked.

Dak walked a few steps ahead of her bearded friend, eyes locked firmly in front of her due to the immense light flooding from the flashlight and clearing rooms left and right when they appeared down the corridor. She tried her hardest to stay calm, but as more time went on and the more rooms that weren't occupied, her unease started to become noticeable to Jack when her fingers fidgeted on her gun handle. He wanted to reassure her, but it was hard to when he couldn't even comfort himself. Everything was just a little too easy at the moment, and they knew that wasn't a good sign.

As her legs kept leading her forward, Dakota spoke softly to her companion.

"You'd think there would have been a gunshot at least by now, even from the other side where the R and R connection are covering." Her voice was smooth as she leaned around the corner of a room that was on her left, yet again confirming an empty space.

Jack nodded in support of her thoughts, ushering out a, "Yeah, I don't feel too great about this right now, D. Any of our groups should have been ambushed by now, or we should have found something. It's too quiet."

Dakota tutted her tongue, a kind of response that Jack took as his words striking a nerve within her. He felt uneasy knowing that one of the only people he knew who usually could stay composed was on the brink of falling from that ledge.

Gun locked tightly in hand, the woman's eyes still followed the flashlight as it displayed parts of the darkened corridor, walking forward with precision. Jack stayed close behind, gun hand resting against the flashlight arm and ready to pop off if need be.

Lahey should have been around. Everyone knew that at this point as all groups made their way through the crypt of a bunker. The quiet and the darkness didn't make the situation any better, especially for Ryan because his mask was pretty deafening in both aspects. He and Ray went through the back way, hoping in some way to surprise the FIB agents inside, or at least to get the drop on them in some way.

Maybe he should have been concentrating on the job at hand, but it'd be a lie if he were to say that he was. His mind was all over the place. He was more distant than a ruthless killer should have been when on the hunt for a job, but falling hard for a woman was a huge constant on his brain, not to mention his biggest weakness. More or less the reason why all of his flings in the past years never ended in anything serious, knowing the outcome would be the girl would run away screaming, die, or ending up getting in the way of his lifestyle.

But Dakota was different, and he loved her with everything that he had in him, and it was hard to concentrate on anything other than her, even for the Vagabond. And _God,_ the Vagabond. How would she react to that? Would it scare her away too? Probably not, but it still freaked him out, especially the fact that he didn't just tell her from the start who his persona was exactly. Why did everything have to be so complicated when it came down to it?

Ray sensed his friend's internal conflict, and even though it may not have been the best time, he struck up a conversation while searching the depths of the bunker as alert as he could. 

"So, you're pretty stoic right now, man, even for you," Ray stated softly, eyes darting to Ryan for a brief second to make sure that he was heard, and when the masked man returned the glance, Ray continued to look ahead.

"I mean, we are on a job right now," came the reply, and Ray huffed at it.

"You know, I'm not a dumbass, Ryan. I can clearly see that we're hunting down people who could potentially kill us or make us rot in prison forever."

Ryan chuckled lightly. "Alright, so what do you mean then?"

Ray took a small lead in front of Ryan as they came up to a darkened room in the bunker. He took a thorough look around what seemed to be an old dining area, checking for any signs of the enemy. The room showed nothing, and when Ray was satisfied with this, he stopped for a minute in his tracks.

"I mean, there's been a lot of stuff going on with you and Dakota lately, and it's taken you over. Her too. I know you think that we don't notice any of the behind the scenes with you, but we do- especially me."

Ryan mentally sighed. He didn't need any more thought processes about Dakota- he had too many already. 

"What's your point?"

"My point is: what's been _really_ going on with both of you? Like the truth? She won't allow herself to tell me, and it's clearly been so heavy on your mind that you look like you haven't slept in however long. And what were you guys talking about on Chilliad? I know I shouldn't butt in, but I care about both of you and-"

"Ray."

"Ryan."

"I told her that I love her."

Ray's eyes immediately tripled in size underneath his glasses. If it were possible, smoke would be billowing from his head because his mind just got fucking blown. When he finally found the words to say to Ryan, it seemed like ten minutes went by as they both stood there in the dark with nothing but the flashlights illuminating the bunker's metal tables and chairs.

"Definitely was not expecting that, more so because I never thought you'd ever verbally admit that in your entire life," Ray breathed out while using the handle of his flashlight to scratch the top of his head.

Ryan pulled the mask up to his forehead, revealing his eyes and mouth to breathe and talk easier, small remnants of eye black still barely smudged around his eye sockets.

"It was so hard to say it. But I had to. She opened up and then she shut herself away from me as soon as she did, and that made it worse, but she had to know. I had to say it."

Ray nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I mean, I get it."

"I don't think you do," Ryan mumbled loud enough for Ray to hear, and continued before he could be cut off. "This whole time, I've been falling so damn hard, whether I knew it or not. Honestly, I fell back at the Davis building for those blue eyes and that wild hair and just... her. All of her. And it's like I know she feels the same, otherwise we wouldn't have had sex or lived this long with the connection that we have. It was just so hard for me to get close to her when she pushed me away all the damn time. And she doesn't even know that I was the Vagabond, so I don't know how that's gonna go. Either way, she's on the other side of this bunker and knows how I feel, and here we are."

Ray was so shocked that he didn't even know what to talk about first, but finally cleared his throat to speak.

"Alright, so, first off, didn't know you guys fucked so that's a bit of a shocker, even for me. Second, if you think she's gonna be intimidated by you because of your past, do you literally not even remember who her father was? And third, there's no fucking way in fucking hell that this girl doesn't feel the same way about you, Ryan."

Ryan's head picked up to glance at Ray, their eyes catching one another in the illuminating glow of the flashlight though the bottoms of their features were the only things visible. He leaned his weight on one side, letting his hands fall slightly with his gun still tightened in his grip.

"What?"

Ray couldn't help but laugh.

"You goddamn goof. That girl is crazy about you! These past few months, you two have gotten close, maybe even closer than her and I, and she's my best friend, dude. I come to her when Michael and Gavin just don't understand me, or I don't want them to know something, what have you. But you two hit it off from the start. And her affection hasn't ever faltered, but it's grown so big that she doesn't know how to handle it. So she pushes you away thinking it'll keep you both safe, whether she realizes that's why she does it or not. She may not have said it when you told her, thanks to General Gooch for ruining that, but she loves you, Ryebread."

Before Ryan could get into the conversation any further, his body froze when the sounds of footsteps echoed distantly. He raised the gun again, listening closely to try to pinpoint the exact location, focusing on whether or not he could tell if the steps belonged to friend or foe. 

His eyes darted up to Ray's, he, too, standing stiff in wait, and quickly Ryan pulled his mask back down onto his face. When the footsteps drew nearer, Ryan grabbed Ray's wrist and pulled him behind a kitchen counter that they were standing next to, trying his hardest to stay as quiet as possible as the pair ducked. They held their breath while letting the person draw closer, triggers close to their fingers.

It seemed like forever when the person finally emerged fully into the room, entering from the opposite side in which Ray and Ryan had came from. There was definitely only one person in there with them, but the problem with that was they didn’t know if another person could have been standing out in the corridor. It didn’t take long for Ryan to pick up a medium sized rock laying by his boot, chunking it over the counter. The rock hit a wall, clanging to the ground, and the man grunted in confusion. 

“What the hell?” His low voice asked, soon another cutting in, yet it sounded a bit muffled.

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah,” the first voice replied, “the problem is I think there’s rats in here and it’s creeping me the fuck out.”

A chuckle, followed by, “You’re a pussy, Adams. I don’t know how you’re an agent honestly.”

“I don’t know how either if we’re being honest. Can’t wait to quit this job,” Adams sighed heavily, a second pair of footsteps echoing in the room and joining. Hopefully for the R and R connection, there weren’t gonna be anymore people coming in.

Ray turned to Ryan, holding up a finger gun, pulling the trigger a few times, and Ryan knew he meant, “We gonna shoot these guys?”

Ryan shook his head, and Ray instead started making a strangling motion, causing Ryan to roll his eyes, but he nodded to indicate that these guys needed to be taken out quietly. 

They had executed these kinds of situations for so long over the years that there was no hesitation, no warning when the two men popped out from their cover, lunging at the agents who still were randomly shooting the shit, too quick for them the even bring their guns up. 

Ray and Ryan took them out smoothly through strangulation, and when the last man stopped twitching, Ray beamed to Ryan.

“We’re kind of badasses, aren’t we?”

Ryan laughed and nodded, tightening his mask onto his face. He took it as his responsibility to radio in the run in with the agents, to which Geoff huffed in the earpiece and replied that there was nothing they had found yet. Jack and Dakota backed them up as they, too, still hadn’t found any kind of commotion. The R and R connection were the lucky ones who got to find themselves some kind of action, and this seriously irked everyone. 

“Why the fuck haven’t we found anything yet?!” Michael stated harshly, causing Gavin to shush him. 

“Keep your voice down, boi!”

“No! Fuck that! I’m tired of this sitting around and waiting bullshit! We saw a bunch of guys come in here and no one has showed up except for our people who are on the fuck-all otherside of this goddamn bunker! Either these guys aren’t as badass as they thought or were screwed. Or Jack is a goddamn liar and didn’t see shit through his binoculars.”

Geoff, hardened by their current situation, smacked his lips and sighed. “I hate to agree with Gavin, but we do need to keep it down. We don’t know what we’re walking into. But the moment I see one of these fuckers they’re getting a bullet up their-“

A gunshot rang out abruptly, coming from the split where Jack and Dakota has branched off from their trio. The three turned their flashlights behind them, standing for a moment. 

“You guys heard that, right?” Geoff questioned, his voice low. 

Michael and Gavin didn’t even have to nod because four more shots answered, and that’s all it took for the three of them to run off back the way they came, Michael reaching out to Ryan and Ray to let them know that Jack and Dakota were more than likely under fire and to worry about their side of the bunker. 

As they ran to their friends, a firefight ensued and gunshots were echoing left and right, becoming clearer and more deafening as they got closer due to the small capacity of the halls. Flashes of light were coming off of the guns as they neared, flashlights waving around wildly as a few different people moved around for cover and kept poking their bodies out to pop off a few rounds. 

Michael could see Dakota and Jack ducking behind into the doorway of two different rooms on either side of the corridor at the end, and he pushed himself to sprint even harder to get to them. He strode until he finally reached the pair, jumping into the room with Dakota to avoid the gunfire blazing down the hallway towards him, and Gavin and Geoff jumped into the room with Jack.

The rooms were larger than they imagined, being spacey and wide, which meant it probably was leading deeper into the ground at this point and the rooms from then on out would start to grow. The three threw their backs against the walls that their friends were pressed against as they reloaded, gunshots still busting their eardrums from the opposers. 

“You got an idea how many are up there?” Geoff shouted loud enough over the fire where both Jack and Dakota shook their heads. 

Jack slipped another clip from his pocket into the handgun, shaking his head. “We have no fucking clue. They came out of nowhere, and if Dakota hadn’t spotted movement in the dark, we would have never saw them coming. Bastards had their lights off and were waiting for us to step into this little lobby area that’s ahead of us.”

Geoff gave a nod of ackowledgement as Jack peeled hisself out and fired off into the lights that were blinding him. He successfully hit one of the frontmen, not before being graced by a bullet in the arm. 

Jack pulled back immediately and slid away from the entrance of the room, gripping his bicep, waving off Geoff and Gavin before they could even ask if he was okay. 

“Got one of ‘em, I just got grazed. You’re are welcome to jump in whenever you want to.”

Gavin took it upon himself to throw down some cover fire, landing a few hits on some of the men as Dakota and Michael took turns shooting. In a matter of minutes, the firefight was over, and the five crew members emerged victorious. They cautiously walked to the bodies that had once barricaded them from going forward, and as they checked to make sure that everyone was dead, a voice rang out in the comms. 

"Dakota, what the fuck is going on?! Are you okay?! I swear to God if you're dead-"

"Burnie, I'm fine," Dak sighed, exhausted. She wiped sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her shirt. "We just ran into our first encounter of Lahey's men. Other than that, no sign of the man himself."

Burnie, too, sighed on the other side of the earpiece as Dakota led the group into a narrow hallway, coming across a lobby with high ceilings and more space than the endless corridors they had come across. 

"It's been an hour, D, so why the hell haven't you said anything?!" Burnie hissed, causing the woman to roll her eyes.

"We've been trying to stay on the down low, Burns. I know you're worried and all, but I really don't need this surrogate dad stuff right now."

"Well too late, because I started driving to the upstate of San Andreas already. Lester is back in LS monitoring roadways to make sure you won't have anyone coming up behind y'all. I'll be there soon," Burnie replied sternly.

As Dakota stepped into the middle of the deserted, large room, the sound of whirring accompanied lights turning on, and the five Fake AH Crew members warily looked around to try and find the source.

"Fuck," Geoff breathed, immediately hopping onto the mic. "Lester, how the fuck are the lights working in this bunker?"

It took a minute or two for the crotchety old hermit to jump on the line, him muttering and spluttering curse words under his breath.

There was the sound of an inhaler puff, an inhale, an exhale, and then Lester’s voice was in all of their heads. 

“Looking at the blueprint of the bunker, there’s a backup generator in a wing close to the direct middle of the facility itself. Guess Lahey and his gang knew that this generator was here and took the right measurements to make sure they could use it to their advantage. My bet is that you find that generator, and your night will get a whole lot crazier."

Geoff looked like he was unsure of that bet. Dakota, too, was unsure of it, but what if Lester was right?

She pondered it over while taking in the bunker's outlines from the newly shed emergency lights. It was hard to know where to go next since all of them were back in large group, the R and R connection still lingering on a completely opposite side from them, but she knew they had to move away from their gunfight or else they would be sitting ducks. Surely, there were men on the way to find the source of the all of the gunfire. She started forward, remembering the interworking of the bunker from when she would explore it as a child, silently thanking her father for bringing her there on occasion. Everything he did ended up being inevitably good for her, because had she not been related to him, she wouldn't have been spared that day back in her beach home. She would have had to kill, or put up a good fight with these men that she called family, would have probably been taken out by the Vagabond, the man she came to know and love- _God, there was that word again, but it was true._ Her dad really left a huge impact on her from an early age, and she was forever grateful.

"We gotta move," she called over her back, although her friends were already following closely behind. "If I remember well enough, we can get to the main webbing of this place by going this way. Can someone tell Ray and Ryan to find their way there, too? We're gonna need everyone we have if there's a group of FIB agents waiting for us there."

"And if there's not, and we fall right into a trap, or we run into them on the way?" Jack questioned, asking the obvious that everyone else was thinking. 

Dakota turned to Geoff, a smile on her face.

"Then just think of it as sneaking into a contracted killer with a notoriously bad dad's house. I never had any doubt that you couldn't handle your business there, so we'll take of it here too."

Geoff couldn't help but smile at the woman's confidence. He didn't hate her. He knew that much. In a way, he felt close to her even though they were probably the most distant of the seven, and even if they were dicks to each other as well. It'd be too bad if their relationship every got worse. He hoped it wouldn't, but quickly found himself welling up his pride again and continuing on the path that the woman was fronting.

When Ray and Ryan were radioed in and told to meet directly in the center of the military facility, that was the exact moment that they realized they were already in the center, and that a dozen or more men were waiting for them, but had no idea that they were there just yet.

" _Holy fucking shit,_ " Ray stated with almost a slight laugh while staring at just how large the center was. They had been wandering in such narrow parts of the bunker, ever so slowly going further below ground level, and it was hard to believe that there was a section that was pretty much as big as the lobby of the famous and historical hotel in downtown Los Santos. The two stood on a balcony overlooking the circular room below, with stairs leading down to the floor, and large columns holding up the whole infrastructure. There were several tunnels down at the bottom as well as at the top level where the two men stood, and a small catwalk wrapped itself around the top level, equipped with railing to hold up those who had to walk it. Since it was abandoned, there was really nothing there other than the spacious area itself and a few large crates that go left behind, but the lot of men were rambling around on their guard with guns held tightly in their hands. 

Ryan scoured the place while Ray gawked still, and once his eyes found Lahey in the midst of the agents, his blood boiled when he realized that he had Dakota's hat strapped to his belt loops. 

_Like it even matters because he's gonna die tonight, but using a bluff as shitty as "I found a piece of hair in your hat that could help me imprison you" is just downright insulting. It was just a weird mishap, but it signed your death certificate,_ Ryan thought.

Quickly, he motioned to Ray to jump into one of the tunnels on their level before any of the agents had a chance to spot either of them, and they stealthily ducked into two separate entrances, crouching down to be hidden in the shadows that the lights casted, but with enough leverage that they could watch everyone's movement in the entire room. Ryan cut into the earpiece as they did so.

"We're already here," he whispered calmly, "and Lahey is too."

"Fuckin' A!" he heard Michael yell excitedly into the comms, and it was loud enough that he had to close his eyes as his brain became rattled. Ryan wasn't worried about the men below hearing them because the whir of the lights was buzzing and echoing enough to compensate for it.

"So how should we go about this?" Ray questioned, his eyes peering through his glasses to see just how many men he could take out in a matter of seconds. "Ryan and I can do it ourselves, boom, they're dead. Or do you want us to all be here? They know sooner or later we're all gonna wind up in the center and try to ambush us. There are a bunch of tunnels though. This room is huge and has two levels, wings leading out on both of them."

The five that were coming upon the middle of the bunker stopped for a moment, Dakota turning to her side as Geoff was now next to her, and her eyes flickered over the rest of the boys before settling onto the FAHC leader again.

"How do you want to do it?" She asked, and Geoff smirked. 

"You're the one leading us right now, Ms. Dayley," he replied lightly.

She gave a small smile back.

"Well, then what do you say we split back up, come at them from different angles through those wings?"

"I'd say it's the best shot we've got right now."

Dakota gave him a firm look, putting out her hand for him to take. Geoff wanted more than anything to pull her into a hug, show her that he actually cared and that she did matter to his crew, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not just yet. Instead, he took her hand and squeezed it securely.

"I'll meet you on the other side of this fight," she spoke, "Wherever that may be."

"Count on it, Dak," Geoff answered, his mouth still resting with a tiny grin.

As Geoff and Michael and Gavin took off on a different path to find the center, Dakota and Jack kept the way they were going, all the while telling Ryan and Ray to stay put. The woman and man started up a jog, their fingers ready to pull the trigger of their guns if anything happened along the way, but it didn't take long for them to come out of one of the top tunnels. Dakota's eyes observed the room, and when she found that the R and R connection was directly across from them, she couldn't help but feel her heart well up with emotions.

Her bestfriend and the man she wouldn't mind to have be her boyfriend. 

_Yeah, that sounded right. It really fucking did. Still gotta tell him how you feel though._

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Geoff and Michael and Gavin had appeared in one of the wings on the other side too, but they were on the same level as the FIB agents. All of their gazes found Ray and Ryan, then Dakota and Jack, and Dakota raised her hand for a signal. Geoff followed as well, and with one swift wave of both of their hands, the crew stormed into the room all at once, guns immediately firing at whoever they could get their sights on. The FIB men didn't know what hit them at first, a few of them falling to the ground, lifeless, but the ones who weren't hit quickly gained their composure and ducked behind crates or columns. 

The Fakes got to who they could if someone was covered for one group but out of cover for another. Gunfire hailed every part of the room, echoing directly after each other even in the large confines of the room's parameters. When one of the crew members needed to reload or hide, they split and found their way into the wings, instantly popping back out and releasing a round of fire. It seemed like the crew had the upper hand for minutes, blasting their opposites endlessly, but as soon as the crowd started to thin, another slew would run through the actual entrance on the bottom floor. 

"There!" Jack yelled, his voice almost drowned out by the commotion. "They're coming in from that door!" 

As Dakota spun to look at it, her sights trained on a man running against the grain, clawing to get out of the line of fire. She thought nothing of it, just a coward taking himself home, until a hat clipped to his belt appeared underneath his coat jacket, and she recognized that Lahey was trying to make an escape. Either he was trying to get away to take the "evidence" with him and hand it over to his institution that could be waiting outside and imprison them (if they all got out alive), or he was trying to lead her away from her crew and straight into a trap. While Lester hadn't said anything about anyone sneaking up on them, and with Burnie on his way, she much rather would have taken the latter chance than the former.

The woman nudged her elbow into Jack and pointed out Lahey making a getaway. 

"We have to go after him, Jack!"

Before he could even reply, Dakota started down the stairs, jumping over the railing when she was halfway down and sprinting as fast as she could to go through the same door. Agents tried to catch her, but she dodged them and popped off shots that either made a direct hit or forced the men to slam into cover, paving her path even further. She could hear Jack calling after her, but she didn't turn around to see if he was following or not. She was too focused on Lahey as she got closer to the door.

When the rest of her friends noticed what she was doing, they felt helpless. They had no idea what they were supposed to do. They kept laying down bullets, trying to help shield her as best as they could while she ran. They knew there was no way they could do exactly as she had done without getting ripped to shreds.

All of them except Ryan.

His days as a mercenary kicked in as if it were a switch, and he knew what to do. He knew how to calculate every move and execute it with a hundred percent success rate. He knew that he could follow in her footsteps, hell, even do a better job than to just jump straight into the fire and instead articulate it. Those were the days he felt the most alive, the most powerful, and he loved every twisted second of it. But now, he had a purpose for it, not just madness. 

A purpose. A woman. A woman that he truly loved and didn't want to see get killed, no matter how skillful she was.

He had to get to her.

Ryan felt his body propel him forward on the catwalk that he and Ray were on, and he ran at full force across the ledge as the agents were too busy dealing with five guns shooting at them. His eyes found the door below him at the bottom of the ledge, noticing it had a protrusion big enough for him to land on and a wire cable dangling from the ceiling. When he reached the end, his foot found one of the railings and pushed off, jumping to the protrusion and catching himself on the cable. His side slammed into the wall, knocking the breath out of him, and he could feel his hands getting cut up from the cable, but he recovered immediately and leapt to the floor. 

When Ryan disappeared into the doorway after Dakota, Gavin accent humorously piped up in everyone's comms.

"Well, shit."


End file.
